Thunder Bay Regional hospital explains fire code violation

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre says an Ontario fire code violation that was revealed on Wednesday stems from a patient bed being found in an alcove during a fire inspection last November. 

President and CEO Andreé Robichaud  told reporters on Thursday that the hospital had been in the final stages of moving overflow patients out of alcoves and into patient lounges when the inspection occurred.

"We moved the last patient [out of an alcove] on November 4th.  The inspection was done on November 1st," Robichaud said, adding that the hospital received notification on the charge in January.  

She said the hospital had been using alcoves for over four years as it struggled with overcapacity.

"We felt that that the alcoves were safe... [because] they were close to the nursing station [and] the nurses could observe the patient at all times," Robichaud said.

But earlier last year, the Thunder Bay fire department determined the practice was a fire risk.

Robichaud said that's when the hospital decided to convert patient lounges into patient rooms as an alternative, but it took time to make that happen. 

"We couldn't transfer patients from the alcoves to the patient lounges immediately," she said, because the hospital had to renovate the rooms — including installing curtains and call bells — to make them suitable for patient care.

In a news release from Thunder Bay Fire Rescue on Wednesday, chief John Hay said the hospital must maintain its obligation to the Ontario Fire Code, regardless of bed availability issues.  

"The decision to place patients in alcoves rather than patient care rooms was a poor one, and resulted in an unacceptable level of risk," he said. 

'A question of overcapacity'

Robichaud confirmed that the fire safety issue has been addressed, as patients no longer stay in alcoves. 

But she emphasized that housing them in patient lounges also should not be the norm. 

"This is really a question of overcapacity," she said. "If we were functioning at the number of patients we should have, we wouldn't have anybody in the ... patient lounges."

Robichaud repeated what Thunder Bay Regional has said many times before — that the problem is not a shortage of hospital beds, but a lack of beds in community facilities such as long-term care. 

That shortage means patients no longer requiring hospital care can't be discharged because there is nowhere for them to go, leaving no room for new patients coming in through the Emergency department.  

Hospitals across the country are struggling with the same issue, Robichaud said, "although it's worse here."

She pointed out that in urban areas with multiple acute-care hospitals, one emergency department can temporarily shut down and divert patients elsewhere during times of severe overcapacity.   

Robichaud said she's still optimistic that relief is in sight, because the North West Local Health Integration Network has submitted a plan to increase community bed capacity to the provincial government.

"I'm hopeful [the] government will respond pretty quickly and we will be able to move forward," she said. 

As of Thursday morning, there were 10 patients in Thunder Bay Regional's emergency department waiting to be admitted.  There were 56 Alternate Level of Care [ALC] patients in acute care beds waiting for transfer elsewhere.