Advancements in technology and organization are expected to ease the impact of the flu season on Windsor Regional Hospital.
In the time since the surge created overcapacity problems last year a lot of work has been done to develop new systems.
Among the improvements is the creation of a "Command Centre" where all the data about patient numbers, bed availability and available resources are displayed on large television screens.
There's also a "Systems Huddle" done twice a day where all the key decision makers meet to plan their strategy.
This year there's a new tool to predict when the greatest surges are likely to happen and allocate the necessary staff and resources.
Ouellette Campus Emergency Department Manager Jeff Theriault explains how the technology helps them plan.
Ouellette Campus Emergency Department Manager Jeff Theriault, October 24, 2018 (by AM800's Peter Langille)
"The orange line is the actual real-time volume within the departments you see on this model here, that the wait times at that particular time of the day were a little bit higher than historical. So then you can use that information and make an educated decision on when you're going to attend the department and which department you might attend"
Director of Emergency Services Theresa Morris says the command centre information is extremely detailed.
Director of Emergency Services Theresa Morris, October 24, 2018 (by AM800's Peter Langille)
"We actually have the technology now and some visual aids that we use to help us plan that, so how many patients are in each emergency department, what is our census on each one of our units. We have our vibe that allows us to drill right down to our patient unit level so we can see what is happening"
The Physician Director of Utilization, Dr. Robert Seski says the evolution of the system is at the leading edge among Ontario hospitals.
"We're really just at a point now where we can start to make significant improvement and that improvement will come through data management. So we finally have the ability through nice sophisticated tools to track everything that's going on with every single patient"
Only two other Ontario hospitals (one on St. Catharines and the other in Toronto) have this level of sophisticated technology.
Dr. Seski says their philosophy was to make the system work better with what they have.
With funding for 28 additional beds for the flu season, they expect to be able to handles the surges better.