Influx of patients clogs emergency department

The emergency department at Sault Area Hospital was not admitting new patients early Tuesday morning, says SAH's chief operating officer.

A Code Orange was declared, which is an internal code the hospital uses in case of a disaster or situation that overwhelms their emergency department.

“In this case the crisis was not an external accident but actually the capacity of the hospital,” said SAH COO Marie Paluzzi.

The emergency department saw a total of 187 patients yesterday and a higher proportion of those patients required admission.

“This meant we had one trauma room available, meaning literally we could not see patients that were coming in the door,” said Paluzzi.

The backlog created a “perfect storm” this morning, where about 40 patients were waiting for beds and caused the orange alert at 8 a.m.

This effectively closed the emergency department from seeing new patients.

She said there wasn’t a specific trend that caused the backlog.

“I know that we have certainly seen a lot of virulent viruses in the community, but that wasn’t the main cause of the patients being admitted. We had a full scope; heart attacks, mental health, infections,” said Paluzzi.

Partners such as the Community Care Access Centre, nursing homes and the Algoma Residential Community Hospice (ARCH) assisted by diverting patients that may have ended up in the Sault Area Hospital.

“I would really like to recognize all of the agencies and hospitals that we work with because they really stepped up and helped to take our patients back or not to send patients and refer them elsewhere,” said Paluzzi.

The backlog was cleared enough by 12:30 p.m. this afternoon to lift the Orange Alert.

“Over the course of the day, we were able to discharge enough patients, either from the in-patient wards or those who were in the emergency department so that we were then able to see new people coming in through the door,” she said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 20 patients were waiting for rooms but the emergency department was cleared enough to treat new patients.

“I don’t want to discourage people from coming to the emergency department if they need care. That wouldn’t be something I would want to tell people,” she said.

(FILE PHOTO: Sault Area Hospital's emegency entrance)