How much of human life is lost in waiting!
While American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote those anguished words nearly 200 years ago, they could easily be posted today above the ambulance bays at Windsor’s two hospital emergency departments.
It’s not uncommon for ambulances to be backed up waiting to unload patients at Windsor Regional Hospital’s two sites. Paramedics can’t just drop them and go, so there the ambulances sit, sometimes for up to five hours.
Redirecting some county patients to Leamington District Memorial Hospital during especially busy times seems like a prudent idea.
In Leamington, the average wait time for an ambulance to unload a patient is 15 minutes. In Windsor, it’s 30 minutes to an hour.
With wait times in Leamington dramatically shorter, patients will get timelier treatment.
And even factoring in travelling time, ambulances will be back in service sooner.
The new protocol to redirect patients picked up in Amherstburg, LaSalle, Tecumseh, Lakeshore and Essex to Leamington, even if Windsor’s hospitals are closer, is the brainchild of Bruce Krauter, chief of Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services.
Krauter is looking to improve his service without compromising patient care.
County patients will still come to Windsor if they are having heart issues or displaying symptoms of stroke.
The same goes for trauma patients and those with a history of complex medical conditions. Mental health patients and residents of long-term care homes will also still go to one of Windsor’s two ERs.
Better utilization of Leamington’s emergency department will improve service in Windsor, too. Rather than having ambulances idling outside an emergency department, they’ll be ready to spring into action.
There are normally 24 ambulances on duty during the day throughout Windsor and Essex County, and 18 at night. Last month alone, there were 10 times when there were only two ambulances available to respond to calls. All the others were busy, lined up waiting to unload patients at the hospital or en route there. In ambulance lingo, this is referred to as red status.
There were an additional 30 times when the number of available ambulances dipped to six or fewer. This is yellow status.
The new protocol to redirect less-urgent patients to Leamington will be triggered only when EMS gets to yellow status.
Based on 2014 statistics, that could happen 900 times a year. More likely, it will average out to one patient a day.
Critics are already blasting the plan, saying it’s an underhanded way to deter people from calling an ambulance — more of the city versus county animosity that seems ingrained here.
Others say it’s being done to bolster Leamington’s hospital, keeping it from slowly spiralling into oblivion. Considering Leamington nearly lost its obstetrics department this year, boosting its ER numbers will justify the hospital’s existence, critics say.
It’s undeniable that this plan may benefit Leamington. It may get more ER doctors because of the increased traffic.
But it’s also conceivable that some of the patients who get redirected there might find themselves pleasantly surprised at the treatment they receive in Leamington.
Who knows? Perhaps people will start making the drive there on their own. The thought of a shorter emergency room wait can have that effect on people.
Find Windsor Star on Facebook
