Hospital discharge system defended by B.C. health minister

Health Minister Terry Lake defended B.C.'s hospital discharge and patient care quality review systems, as CBC News continues to highlight cases of seniors being discharged inappropriately.

The latest case to come to light is that of 80-year-old Arthur Mackenzie, who was taken to St. Joseph's hospital in Comox suffering fromchronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema in January 2005.

A few weeks later, his children Laurie and Brent say, he was discharged without their knowledge and leftwandering the street near his home, with a blanket across his shoulders.

"He had just been brought there anddumped by a HandyDART - no keys, no coat, no money," said Brent.

Three weeks later Arthur died from his chronic illness. In their grief, Brent and Laurie say they never filed a formal complaint.

The first case discovered by the CBC was that ofVivian Fitzpatrick, 90,who is legally blind. Shewas sent home alone in a cab in the middle of the night from Delta Hospital, dressed in pyjamas and slippers.The Fraser Health Authority has since apologized.

In another similar case, Hannah Chidley, 76, wasalso sent home alone in a taxi without her son's knowledge from Mount Saint Joseph's Hospital. Providence Health Care hassince reviewed itsprocedures.

• Read more about Vivian Fitzpatrick's case
• Read more about Hannah Chidley's case

Last week, the Fraser Health Authority and Providence Health Carefreely admitted that taxi rides home are not unusual and could be a good option.

• Hospital discharge taxi rides 'not unusual'

But B.C. NDP Leader Adrian Dix called it a "systemic" problem caused by a lack of funding and called for further action.

'Not the norm'

Speaking to Rick Cluff on The Early Edition Monday, the health minister defended the system,labellingthe NDP's claims as "fear-mongering."

"In this situation, the emergency room was quite quiet. There wasn't a lack of space where they needed to get the patients home," said Lake.

"We can't condone a vulnerable patient being sent home without a proper transition plan in place, and it is not the norm to have that happen.

"Butthere are incidents where things don't come together quite as well as they should This is a system made up of many, many human beings and sometimes failures occur."

Improvement needed

Lake said the number of complaints was small compared with the number of visits to emergency rooms throughout the year, but conceded it was still too many and they always needed to improve.

"When we have over two million visits to emergency departments each year, we're going to have some that come with problems, and that's why we have the Patient Care Quality Officers so patients can express their concerns."

He also said the province had spent a lot money over the last few years trying toease the flow through emergency departments, setting targetwaittimes and increasing the number offamily doctors available.

Butthe minister admittedthere are no provincial standards which govern the discharge of patients.

"It is up to the discretion of the doctors and nurses. They are the experts and, with the patients, determine if it is appropriate to send them home or not."

Common sense

Lake said Fraser Health is investigating Fitzpatrick's case to ensure it does not happen again.

"Common sense would tell us that [the nurse] should have contacted the patient's daughter to make sure this arrangement was OK."

It was previously thought the total number of discharge-related complaints received by all B.C.health authorities in the 2012/13 fiscal year was 172.

However, this did not include those complaints made to Fraser Health, which brings the total to 262 discharge-related complaints overall.