Queensway-Carleton Hospital anticipates ‘tougher’ fall and winter season amid current challenges

With influenza season approaching, the Queensway-Carleton Hospital (QCH) is anticipating a 'tough' winter season ahead.

The vice president of patient care and the chief nurse executive, Yvonne Wilson, told CityNews Ottawa that the QCH occupancy rate is still high, a number that also includes amount of people admitted to the hospital.

“We are still seeing patients coming in with COVID,” she said, adding people are also coming in with a variety of respiratory illnesses. “We are also seeing patients who are sicker, we've had a long pandemic, they may not be able to access care or they have been delaying seeking care, and so they're coming in and they're a little bit sicker, requiring an admission to hospital,” 

Over in the Valley, Dr. Linna Li, acting medical officer of health for the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark's Health Unit, told CityNews that she anticipates a rise of non-COVID respiratory illnesses such as cold and flu in residents in the coming months.

The QCH also continues to tackle challenges such as staffing concerns and high occupancy rates, meaning a shortage of beds and longer emergency department wait times.

The hospital, Wilson explained, tries to utilize as many beds as possible (depending on how many people need care), but with the high occupancy rate, that continues to be a challenge. Admitted patients are staying in the emergency department for more extended periods of time, which further increases wait times—something seen in hospitals across the city.

The emergency wait times also create a backlog for ambulatory care, and the QCH is working with the Ottawa Paramedic Service to address that challenge.

Another challenge is staffing shortages. which the hospital (and other hospitals across the province) continue to be faced with. The Hôpital Glengarry Memorial Hospital (HGMH) in Alexandria, Ontario had to close its emergency department on Friday, Oct. 21 because of staffing shortages.

But Wilson said there is a plan in place.

“We implemented a seven-point-plan to address our staffing challenge,” she said, which includes hiring new staff including a new co-op program to encourage people to enter the healthcare force as well as a new retention strategy to keep current staff on hand.

Regardless of the challenges, Wilson said she is optimistic that the team at the QCH will be able to provide the care needed for residents in the near future, especially with the number of strategies in place to address concerns and challenges.

“We know that it's going to be a challenge but we're also revitalizing how we're providing our care, so we're upscaling our staff and looking at having everybody work to their full scope of practice,” she said.