By Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative
Chatham-Kent Health Alliance staff is leaning on “muscle memory” as it prepares for a potential second wave of COVID-19.
According to chief executive officer Lori Marshall, the hospital has prepared for the threat by drawing on early experiences with the pandemic.
“We’re ready for wave two, in terms of learning from wave one,” Marshall said in a press conference recently, adding the organization now has “muscle memory it can carry forward.”
As of Monday, there were no COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Chatham’s ICU.
But elsewhere in the province, the news is grim as 1,924 new cases were reported on Sunday, which was a new record.
The majority are in the hot zones of Toronto, Peel and York regions.
However, outbreaks closer to home are ramping up CKHA preparedness measures.
Currently, London and Windsor hospitals have outbreaks, and Marshall says the alliance has to be ready if that happens here.
There’s also the matter of sharing. The Ministry of Health has funded 20 additional beds for Chatham, which are to be allocated regionally if needed.
At present, the alliance has 10 ICU beds, Marshall says, and 12 “progressive care” beds, which are a step down from ICU.
The progressive care beds require higher staffing levels than a normal care bed, however, there are no ventilators.
Marshall says the ICU beds are among Ontario’s most important resources, not only for COVID-19 patients, but also for other critical care issues such as heart attacks or car crash victims.
Marshall acknowledges it’s a stressful time for all hospital staff.
Wearing protective gear all day is fatiguing, she says, and so is “not knowing what the next patient will bring.”
Being safe is of grave importance.
“This vigilance we have reinforced from the beginning of the pandemic is very, very critical right now,” Marshall says.
Capacity levels at the hospital were at 80 per cent. That’s up 10 per cent from the previous week, Marshall says, thanks to an increase in elective surgeries, as part of the facility’s plan to clear a backlog brought on by the pandemic.
Surgeries are prioritized according to urgency, Marshall notes, adding cancer surgery tops the list, followed by cataract surgeries, tonsillectomies, orthopaedic and gall bladder surgery.
Overall, she adds, surgery is at about 90 per cent of what it was in 2019, factoring in that urology is new this year.
Cane Suni, vice-president of clinical operations for the hospital, says surgeries were scaled back at the beginning of pandemic due to the uncertainties.
However, he says, there’s a plan to keep surgery schedules on track until the hospital’s year end in March 2021.
An extra three days of surgery has been added in December to help facilitate the plan.
• The Thamesville Herald
