Don't get sick in the Niagara Region!

[Draya]

[h=2]NHCS in turmoil[/h]

The Niagara Health Care System is a complete mess. With numerous cases of C-Diff, deaths from C-Diff, Hospital staff contracting the illness and emergency patients being told to call 911 when right outside of the hospital there is a crisis in healthcare. Sue Matthews CEO of NHCS is on the hot seat with this turmoil. Matthews also said that staff can bring patients into the ER, so what's going on. I smell lawsuits!Another NHS apology
Rick Fleming, 610 CKTB News
7/22/2011
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The Niagara Health System has apologized yet again.

That; according to the St. Catharines Standard, after a woman died at the Greater Niagara General Hospital in The Falls.

Relatives of 39-year old Jennifer James of Ridgeway say no one helped Jennifer while she was in distress in a car which was... in the parking lot of the GNGH.

Jennifer died April 26th shortly after she was carried into the hospital by her boyfriend. She was not breathing at the time.

Her brother; 37-year old Jarrett James, says they were told "Sorry, you gotta call 9-1-1. Nobody would come out (into the parking lot) to help!"

The apology from the NHS comes on the heels of the incident involving city councillor Joyce Morocco; who was driven to the same hospital by her husband John when she had difficulty breathing this past Sunday.

He was told to "call an ambulance" as his wife struggled in the car... in the hospital parking lot. Joyce ended up taking an ambulance ride... a total of 65 feet from the garage bay to the ER doors.

The NHS has apologized for that incident as well at a recent media conference. Interim chair Sue Matthews confirms that staff are covered for liability or injury in hospital parking lots.

However; Eunice James, Jennifer's mom, says neither her or her family has received a personal apology from the NHS.

ctvtoronto.ca

Date: Monday Jul. 4, 2011 3:17 PM ET

Another patient has died in connection to the outbreak of a highly infectious strain of C. difficile in Niagara region, raising the number of related deaths to 16 in little more than a month.

A tenth patient died after being afflicted by the infectious stomach virus at the St. Catharines General Hospital, the Niagara Health System announced on Monday.

Four other deaths have been reported at the Greater Niagara General site and two others have been reported in a Welland hospital since the outbreak began in early May.

"We truly recognize the loss that the family and friends of this patient are experiencing and on behalf of our staff and physicians we extend our sincere condolences," Dr. Joanna Hope, interim chief of staff for the Niagara Health System, said in a statement.

"The patient had very serious underlying health issues and also had tested positive for C. difficile. The patient's death will be reviewed to determine what role C. difficile played or did not play in their death. This patient's death has also been reported to the Coroner."

The Niagara Health System says 66 cases of C. difficile have been reported at three sites across the St. Catharines and Greater Niagara area.

St. Catharines General Hospital has reported 40 cases since the outbreak was declared at the site on May 28. The Greater Niagara General Hospital has reported 14 cases and a hospital in Welland, Ont., has reported 12 cases since the outbreak alert was expanded June 23.

Sixteen people have died since the outbreak was first reported on May 28, most recently the patient at St. Catharines General. A patient at the Welland Hospital died on July 2.

The outbreak has sparked protests from locals decrying the region's health-care system.

A demonstration is being planned for Wednesday in front of the Greater Niagara General Hospital to demand answers on how the outbreak has managed to continue for so long.

Clostridium difficile, or C. difficile, is a bacteria that spreads through contact and causes severe diarrhea and other intestinal diseases. It is one of the most common infections in hospitals and long-term care facilities, often affecting the elderly or those with underlying illnesses.

The Niagara Heath System represents seven hospitals that serve 434,000 people between St. Catharines and Fort Erie, Ont.

The Ontario government dispatched an Infection Control Resource team to St. Catharines General last week to provide assistance in managing the outbreak.

The Niagara Health System says the results of the C. difficile death reviews will be made public once meetings with the patients' families are complete.

With files from The Canadian Press.

NHS admits to 'bad decision' in Morocco case
By RAY SPITERI Niagara Falls Review
Updated 2 days ago
The Niagara Health System "absolutely did not meet the appropriate standard of care" in dealing with an ill patient in the parking lot of Greater Niagara General Hospital, says Sue Matthews, interim president and chief executive officer of the NHS.

"It is extremely unfortunate that our medical staff were not advised of this patient's arrival by the individual who responded to the patient's husband when he first came into the (emergency room)," said Matthews.

"This was a bad decision by an individual and we have taken appropriate action."

During a council meeting Monday evening, Coun. Joyce Morocco said that as she laid semi-conscious in her car Sunday afternoon at the GNGH parking lot, her husband John went into the emergency department looking for help.

He found a security guard.

"He went inside the hospital and asked someone to please come out and get my wife. They said, 'we can't. Get her in a wheelchair,'" Morocco told her council colleagues.

"He said, 'she's unconscious. I think she's barely breathing.' They said, 'call an ambulance.'"

Morocco, who has a history of heart and asthma problems, said her husband did as he was told.

She said the woman who answered the ambulance call was surprised dispatch had to send an ambulance from the GNGH garage to where the Moroccos had parked because no one from inside the hospital would come out to help.

On Tuesday, Matthews said the situation should not have unfolded the way it did.

"This is not hospital policy and is absolutely not my expectation of the way the Niagara Health System provides care to our patients and their families.


"We have had questions before from our staff about how to respond in situations when patients are outside, on hospital property, because it is standard procedure in other hospitals to call 911 in these situations.

"We did provide notice to all of our staff in December of last year that they support patients and help them in these circumstances. "It's my expectation that staff would immediately respond to incidents like this one and I apologize to the patient and their family."

Matthews said she personally called Morocco to apologize for the way she was "inappropriately treated in our parking lot."

Morocco told The Niagara Falls Review Tuesday she had not been feeling well for a few days.

She and her husband were at a health food store Sunday when she started to feel worse.

Her husband decided to take her to GNGH.

On the way to the hospital, Morocco said the pain in her throat, which had been bothering her for days, was increasing. She started to have trouble breathing and could feel herself blacking out.

"The air was heavy and it was so hot," said Morocco, a former chairwoman of the GNGH Foundation and a long-time financial supporter of the local hospital.

"I was losing my colour and was hyperventilating."

She said by pulling up outside the ER, her husband thought someone from GNGH would come out to get his wife. She said GNGH staff did not know who she was, or that she was a city councillor.

"What if the patient actually went into cardiac arrest and died?" said Morocco. "Who's responsible?"

"I have to say, once I got inside, I was very well taken care of and I thank the staff there.

"But ... to think that somebody pulls up and asks them to come out and get whoever it is out of the vehicle and are told, 'no, call an ambulance,' no wonder our freakin' health care is in such a freakin' mess."

Morocco said she was diagnosed with a throat and chest infection. She spent about five hours in the ER and was sent home.

Matthews would not go into details about what "appropriate action" was taken against the GNGH worker in question because she said the employee belongs to a union.

"There will be some form of ... discipline ... that's taken and education for this employee," said Matthews.

She said there was a misconception at one time that if medical staff were to treat a patient outside of a hospital building and they were to get injured, or hurt a patient, they wouldn't be covered by worker's compensation or the hospital's insurance.

"We actually called our insurer, we called (Workplace Safety and Insurance Board) and we called the regulatory nursing college, just so we know, and that was the clarification that we sent out to staff (last December) — that you are covered and that you are supported by these bodies," said Matthews.

She said standard medical practice at NHS sites when faced with situations similar to that of Morocco's is for staff to respond to the patient, assess them and "get them inside as quickly as possible."

"There may be times, because of physical limitations, that they do have to call 911 because they can't physically lift and they don't have enough back-up support to come out because they're in the middle of other things," said Matthews.

"That certainly is possible that that could happen ... although we have set the expectation that really it's about providing care and support to our patients, so that's the expectation."

Ida Porteous, an administrative director for emergency services at St. Joseph's Hospital, said similarly to the NHS, it's standard medical practice at the Hamilton site for staff to respond to ill patients on its property, whether it be inside the hospital or in the parking lot.

Porteous said there are circumstances, however, when 911 is called.

"If a person is unconscious, we'll call 911 after attending to the patient," she said. "We may also have to call 911 to transport a patient, depending on how close they are to the doors."​