Saskatoon Health Region outlines results of 90-day project to end backlogs

The Saskatoon Health Region has outlined the results of a 90-day project to eliminate backlogs in its hospitals and so-called hallway medicine.

The region said it's doing better, but has not reached some targets it set for itself.

It has reduced the number of patients in overcapacity beds by 58 per cent (from 75 to 31). The region's aim was to bring that number to zero.

Meanwhile, too many patients in emergency are still waiting too long for an inpatient bed. The region had hoped to have 85 per cent of admitted patients in the emergency department given an in-patient bed within five hours, but only achieved 67 per cent. At the start of the project, that number sat at 60.2 per cent. (The figure is an average between Saskatoon's two emergency rooms, and as the region pointed out, fluctuates daily.)

The region said it will keep working to meet its targets.

"We haven't left the foot off the pedal here," said Saskatoon Health Region CEO Dan Florizone. "The idea behind this must-do, can't-fail priority is to get it accelerated. Now it's up to us to move it into continuous improvement mode."

88-year-old in hallway

The project kicked off March 12, the same day the Opposition raised in the legislature the case of an 88-year-old man who spent up to eight hours in a hallway at Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital.

Nurses reportedly told the man's daughter his treatment was "typical."

At the time, Florizone declared "there's going to be a new status quo and it's going to involve no patients waiting or being delayed in the care that they receive."

Right care in right place at right time

Florizone launched a project called 90 Days of Innovation: Ready Every Day, with the goal of being ready to provide people with the right care in the right place at the right time.

Among its successes, the region said it anticipates surges in its patient load with 94 per cent accuracy, and be better prepared to manage those surges when they occur.

In a memo to staff June 10, Florizone said the region now has, "a predictive model that lets us know when we should be ready for surgeries."

He also listed new ways of communicating among staff through "cascading huddles," and forging new partnerships in the community to provide better services outside emergency rooms.

He also said barriers to care were removed through such measures as grouping patients by care team and creating new units.

End put to hallway medicine

Partway through the 90-day cycle, the region announced an end to hallway medicine, the commonly-used term for putting patients in inappropriate places such as overcrowded patient rooms.

Florizone has declared the next 90-day cycle will start September 15 and focus on safety. Reducing hospital deaths will be among the goals. 

Florizone also wants to extend the Safety Alert System across the whole region, with a central intake line for all safety incidents and concerns. It began as a pilot project in St. Paul's Hospital in the spring of 2014.