Report calls Calgary ER services a 'perfect storm'

A new report says the Calgary Health Region needs to do a better jobco-ordinating emergency services after a number of patients complained and average wait times jumped to 13 hours last year.

At the region's request, the Health Quality Council of Alberta spent the past year reviewing Calgary's ER services. Its report, released Tuesday, calls the current system a "perfect storm."

"Instead of having people moving through in a stream, where you have a dedicated workforce, you have the situation arise where you get started on one case and then you'd get distracted and go on another," said Dr. John Cowell, CEO of the health council.

"And then you'd have to come back and meanwhile there's a delay development and then just compound that in a high-volume situation."

The council said little delays add up to big bottlenecks andrecommended a more streamlined approach to triage, the system that sorts patients in priority.

People who don't need emergency care should quickly be sent elsewhere for treatment, the report said.

The report makes atotal of 11 recommendations, including:

• Make everyone with decision-making authority accountable.
• Develop a full cadre of change agents.
• Reduce avoidable emergency department and hospital admissions.

Complaints prompted review

Rick and Rose Lundy made one of the public complaints against thehealth regionlast year, when Rose miscarried in the waiting room of the Peter Lougheed Hospital while three months pregnant. Nurses told them there was nowhere private to go.

Rick Lundy believes the CHR is sincere in seeking change.

"They obviously asked for this review for a purpose and we believe that the purpose is to make change and so we're very confident that this is going to happen," he said Tuesday.

The council also found Calgary's hospitals are 98 per cent full, rather than what the council says is an ideal capacity of 85 per cent. The health region said that's unlikely to change until 2011, when the new hospital in the city's south is expected to be finished.

The review said the pressures facing Calgary hospitalsare identical to ones being tackled by other Canadian hospitals.

Gridlock program criticized

Thehealth regionis trying to free up ER beds with a new program called Gridlock, which moves patients from the emergency department into other wards.

But nurses say that's creating overcrowding and putting even more stress on staff.

"I don't think it's very sustainable," said Diane Lantz, of the United Nurses of Alberta union. "There are more sick calls, there's more people leaving due to the overwork. I can't see it lasting for very long."