(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Sheldon Spackman

Staff Burnout

Rising COVID cases, lack of nurses and capacity, mounting pressure at Red Deer Regional Hospital

Sep 2, 2021 | 12:22 PM

Local doctors are sounding the alarm over what they describe as rising pressures at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre (RDRHC) that are causing burnout among healthcare workers and impacts to patients through overcapacity issues.

Dr. Mike Weldon is an Emergency Room physician at RDRHC and says the number one concern for the Emergency Department, for example, is staff morale.

“It’s been an incredibly difficult 18 months. Burnout is a huge problem and the result is lack of nurses,” he explains. “The second one is capacity. We’re running out of places to put people as we see more volumes and more COVID coming in. The last issue is COVID itself, which is kind of the precipitating cause for number one and two.”

Since May, says Weldon, Red Deer’s Emergency Department has lost 18 nurses. Although efforts are underway to hire more, he says the nurses they’ve lost, were all very experienced.

“Intermittently for the last six weeks, we’ve had at least several beds closed in our department on a daily basis because we don’t have enough nurses,” adds Weldon. “What’s awful for us is days when we’re really busy, people who are having heart attacks and needing blood transfusions are stuck in the waiting room for hours on-end. We’ve seen people who need surgeries who are waiting in the hallway because there’s no place to put them. It’s really difficult as a care provider to watch that happen and not be able to get them the care they need.”

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Weldon says the overcapacity issues also result in Red Deer patients in need of care, being transferred out to other communities such as Ponoka, Lacombe, Innisfail, and Rimbey because of insufficient hospital beds.

In the last few days alone, says Weldon, the ER department at RDRHC has had to transfer out approximately one quarter to one third of its patients to other facilities. This has resulted in transportation issues being highlighted, notes Weldon.

“Quite a sick patient needed to go to Edmonton and we had no ambulances, so the only transport solution was STARS. That was the backup transportation plan,” he laments.

Officials with Alberta Health Services (AHS) acknowledge the current challenges facing RDRHC.

“We are currently seeing a high number of seriously ill patients, which has resulted in some longer wait times for patients to be admitted to the hospital from the emergency department. Rising COVID-19 case numbers in the Red Deer area, and throughout the Central Zone, are having an impact on capacity,” reads a statement from AHS.

“RDRHC has opened three additional ICU beds, and presently has 15 patients, 10 of which are COVID positive. The site has also opened a second dedicated COVID unit, and 26 COVID positive patients are being treated on those two units,” the statement continues.

“We have enacted overcapacity protocols throughout the hospital to improve access and ensure spaces are available for those who need it. OCP is not an unusual occurrence, but more a process that we use to ease demand and improve access when demand is high.”

“One of the ways we’re working to address capacity concerns is through patient repatriation, which means transferring a patient who is medically stable but still requires further care to another health care facility. Additionally, transfers often involve returning patients to hospitals in their own community for ongoing care. Transferring patients between sites in the Zone can help us provide timely access to care for patients who need the specialized services offered at RDRHC.”

“We have taken similar steps during other waves of the pandemic. The Delta variant is different than what we have seen before. It is much more transmissible, and is proving more difficult to contain.”

“We need everyone’s help in protecting each other, and our healthcare system. We strongly urge all eligible Albertans to get immunized as quickly as possible, and to continue following preventative measures such as staying home when sick.”

Dr. Kym Jim, with the Society for Hospital Expansion in Central Alberta (SHECA), admits the last few weeks at RDRHC have been extremely ‘trying’.

“It’s something that’s been a long time in the making,” says Jim. “Red Deer Regional Hospital has lacked capacity of beds to serve the population, it’s lacked programs to serve the population for many years. But the current situation of rising COVID numbers, those lack of beds, and as well, staffing shortages, has really put a strain on the system over the past few weeks.”

At the root of the problem for Red Deer, he concludes, is the years-long lack of capacity at RDRHC.

“The hospital expansion for Red Deer needs to get done. That’s really the bottom line,” he states firmly. “Yes, this situation is exacerbated by COVID, but many of these protocols (Over Capacity Protocols) and many of these transfer processes that are happening, have been in place long before COVID in Red Deer.”