Erie Shores HealthCare in Leamington is getting funding from the Ontario government to support a program designed to free up hospital bed space while reducing the workload on frontline healthcare workers.
Essex Conservative MPP Anthony Leardi announced Wednesday on behalf of the province an additional $2.33 million in annual base funding to help offset costs associated with the hospital's Admission and Discharge Unit (ADU).
Over the past 18 months, the hospital created the ADU and made changes to its admission and discharge process by moving patients who are medically ready to go home out of their hospital bed and into a newly renovated Discharge Lounge that's equipped with a television and comfortable lounge chairs.
Once in the lounge, the patient can wait for the next steps in their release, such as transportation or final discharge paperwork, while opening the hospital bed for another patient and freeing up frontline nurses from paperwork that is now handled by admission and discharge staff.
"We opened this admission-discharge unit so we could bring patients from the ER who needed to be admitted here immediately and then bring discharge patients down to a discharge lounge and a dedicated space so we could remove that idle bedtime," she says.
Kennedy says this project was about looking at how they can do things differently than the traditional way.
"Right now, we've improved the time a patient is in the hospital by around seven hours, and we've improved the wait time to see a physician by almost three hours. So, you're seeing a physician three hours earlier, and you're staying in the hospital around seven hours less," she says.
Kennedy says it is also improving patient flow and reducing paperwork for frontline healthcare staff.
"We are taking around three hours of paperwork away per patient on an inpatient unit for a nurse. Then around three to four hours as well for a discharge nurse on the inpatient unit," she says.
Kennedy, who will become the president and CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital in March, says the program has been successful and will explore the feasibility of a similar unit at Windsor Regional Hospital.
Erie Shores HealthCare is located at 194 Talbot St. W. in Leamington.