The Ontario government is providing more than $725,000 to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre to expand transitional care beds and expand teams to help ease pressure on the hospital’s emergency department.
On Monday, Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith said that of the $725,109 in funding, $537,000 will expand transitional care beds, providing additional resources to areas with high alternate level of care (ALC) patient volumes in order to support patient flow.
PRHC said patients designated ALC are individuals who are occupying an acute care hospital bed but are not acutely ill or do not require the intensity of resources or services provided in the acute care setting.
Smith said an additional $188,109 will support the expansion of existing reactivation and geriatric teams from the emergency department into other inpatient units.
He said the funding will help create “timely” discharges, reduce patient length of stay, and ease pressure on capacity at the hospital.
“Tackling hallway health care requires a multi-pronged approach and innovative solutions — such as our introduction of the Peterborough Community Paramedicine Program; enabling paramedics to assess, monitor, and refer patients to appropriate care settings instead of the emergency department,” Smith said in a statement.
“Our plan for health care includes expanding capacity and improving the flow of patient care in and outside of our hospitals. This announcement is another step forward in achieving these goals.”
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Dr. Lynn Mikula, executive vice president and chief of staff, said PRHC, like hospitals across Ontario, continues to face a surge in patient volumes and acuity. Mikula, who will be PRHC’s next president and CEO in March 2023, said the funding will support the area’s senior and ALC patient populations.
“On behalf of the hospital’s leadership team and board of directors, I would like to thank MPP Dave Smith, Ontario Health and the Ministry of Health for today’s announcement,” she said.
“This funding will help us to continue offering patients the care and support they need at a particularly critical time for hospitals and the broader healthcare system.”
Earlier this year, the hospital received $11,669,000 to make permanent 43 hospital beds added as surge capacity during the pandemic. In 2020 the province announced a $5.2 million in funding for the hospital to support the operation of 45 transitional beds at Rubidge Retirement Residence over a period of several years.
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