COVID cases among SAH staff, but signs of improvement exist

After reporting “a couple of stormy weeks” a month ago in regards to COVID-related absences among staff, Sault Area Hospital now sees that situation improving.

“I have some good news, and that is that our staffing is stabilizing. We had only 27 staff with COVID-related illness last week which is a significant improvement. About a month ago we had over 80 staff off so it’s better from a staffing point of view,” said Sue Roger, SAH vice president of clinical operations and chief nursing executive addressing the hospital’s board of directors at its meeting held virtually Monday.

As of Monday, there were a total of 17 COVID-positive patients in the hospital, dispersed across SAH’s various units, Roger said.

There is currently a COVID-19 outbreak in the hospital’s 3B unit, she reported.

“They are closed on 3B to admissions. We’ve asked for a crisis designation and I expect that will come from Ontario Health in the coming days,” Roger said.

“We continue to have pop up cases and as of Monday we found an additional three cases. While we have improved, when people come out of COVID we have new cases. We’re working hard on 3B to try and stem any further transmission however we know that people can be negative on admission and become positive days later so it's difficult to get this under control, but we’re working hard at infection prevention and control.”

As far as supply chain issues are concerned, Roger said “we’re a little worried about our surgical glove supply. We’ve had to go to a different supplier but they will be delivering tomorrow."

Roger reassured the board that supply of critical medications have always remained stable throughout the pandemic.

Roger said she was encouraged that COVID-related ICU numbers are improving across the province.

Recently, there were 214 patients in ICU in Ontario, and as of Monday there were 158 such patients and only one in SAH’s ICU, Roger said.