At least one major hospital network is canceling all but the most urgent and emergency surgeries, while others are managing a surge in staff testing positive for COVID-19 and cracking down on outside visitors, all in one go. attempt to anticipate the possible increases caused by the Omicron variant.
In Toronto, Unity Health Toronto and University Health Network, two of the city’s leading hospital networks, announced that they will no longer allow visitors for patients with hospital stays of less than seven days. Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center and Michael Garron Hospital are also introducing visitor restrictions.
Omicron’s exponential growth in cases has yet to translate into large numbers of people admitted to the hospital, and ICU figures are stable, although hospitalizations are an upward trend in the province. But faced with the unknowns about the severity of Omicron and the possible shortage of personnel due to its contagion, hospitals are already taking steps to prepare.
Dr. Michael Warner, head of the ICU unit at Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto, said that many of the intensive care units in the GTA have yet to see the impact of the Omicron variant, but are being proactive to protect staff. and to patients.
“It’s really difficult to assess what will happen,” he said, adding that he anticipates that the maximum impact of the variant may not be felt until mid-to-late January.
Unity Health Toronto, which includes St. Joseph’s and St. Michael’s Hospitals and Providence Healthcare, canceled outpatient appointments (such as diabetes and fracture clinics), except the most essential, and surgeries that are not urgent or emergency , from Monday. Outpatient procedures have been moved to virtual wherever possible.
“It has become very clear that we are facing another significant increase in COVID-19 in Toronto and throughout Ontario,” wrote President and CEO Tim Rutledge in a statement posted online.
“Omicron presents all of us with a number of challenges and uncertainties. We are still learning about this new variant, however one thing we have all seen is the extremely fast rate of transmission between people, ”he added. “This variant moves fast.”
The University Health Network in Toronto, which oversees the Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals, will enter the vacation period with its usual downsizing, with some taking time off during winter break.
But Gillian Howard, a spokeswoman for UHN, said the hospital network is seeing more COVID-19 cases among staff, forcing it to adjust staffing models and also rely more on virtual care options, provided that may be possible.
Hospital leaders are also preparing for the possibility of staff being called to work during vacations and relocated to other units if necessary as a last resort. However, as of Tuesday, COVID-19 cases in the ICU remain low with four across the network.
“The concern is that if there are an increasing number of people who have acquired this variant, we will see an increasing number of patients admitted to hospital or ICUs,” Howard said. “Only time will tell if this variant and the level of disease within the population will put pressure on all ICUs.”
Michael Garron’s spokeswoman Shelley Darling said in an email that the hospital is not considering suspending non-emergency surgeries.
Dr. Carmine Simone, Medical Vice President, said in an emailed statement that staff are “evaluating high priority and urgent cases given the labor shortage that has been amplified due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” and evaluating the situation on a daily basis.
“At this time, we have not completely canceled all scheduled outpatient care,” he added.
Over the past two months, the hospital’s operating rooms have been operating approximately 15 percent less than normal “due to staffing pressures and the unprecedented volumes of admissions to our Emergency Department requiring surgical care.”
Trillium Health Partners, a network of hospitals that includes Credit Valley Hospital, Mississauga Hospital and Queensway Health Center, has a COVID-19 patient in the ICU as of Tuesday. But due to an increase in Omicron cases, the network has also introduced new visit restrictions, limiting the number of essential visitors for patients to two, and only one visit is allowed at a time for a maximum of two hours.
Thomas Tenkate, a professor at the school of Public and Occupational Health at the university formerly known as Ryerson, said that due to the rapid spread of Omicron, hospitals are trying to take “preventative” measures.
Experts need more data to determine whether Omicron is less severe than Delta, he said, but even if it turns out to be milder, the “high number of cases” will strain the system, because it is much more contagious.
As of Tuesday, Ontario reported 3,453 new cases of COVID-19, with 412 people hospitalized and 165 in the ICU across the province. The positivity rate is 9.9 percent, down from six percent, suggesting that there are more cases in the community that are not being detected.
Cases are up 125.2 percent from last week’s seven-day average, fueling concern that more people will be hospitalized in the coming days and weeks.
At a news conference Tuesday, Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer for health, said officials “hope for the best but prepare for the worst” when it comes to Omicron, who is estimated to be four to four. eight times more contagious than Delta and now the dominant variant in the province.
Hospitalizations have increased nine percent in the past week, according to Moore. But of the 4,600 Omicrons who have Omicron, only 15 were admitted to the hospital and none are in the ICU, he said, even though it is a fairly young population in their 20s and 30s.
Moore said officials are reviewing all emerging evidence on Omicron, including looking closely at data from Denmark and the United Kingdom. But he has yet to come to “any firm conclusions” about gravity.
Tenkate said that with more cases overall, more healthcare workers will become infected and will need to isolate themselves, even if they don’t get as sick.
“That combination, plus the potential escalating cases, will really be a challenge for the health care system,” he said.
Moore told reporters Tuesday that officials hope to prioritize rapid tests so that healthcare workers can deal with this, as they otherwise anticipate a 20 to 30 percent absence rate with Omicron.
That’s something that weighs on Warner and others who are stressed by the possibility of staff getting sick and having to isolate themselves, especially when they are already operating on “very tight margins,” he said.
There are only four doctors working in Michael Garron’s ICU unit, Warner added, and “even if he loses one, it’s a big problem,” as patients will lack sufficient care.
“When we leave the hospital, we don’t go anywhere, we go home and we don’t see anyone because we are very afraid of having Omicron,” he said. “We are very afraid of not being able to work.”
Reference-www.thestar.com