There is no doubt this is one of the most challenging times we will ever face in our careers in health care and in our lifetime.
It has been a long and difficult road, yet we are starting to see glimmers of hopefulness on the horizon with the easing of public health restrictions over the next few months.
As of January 22, 2022, 4.8% of our 925 staff, physicians and midwives are off sick or are at home self-isolating due to COVID-19. Even with these individuals off work, the hospital has been maintaining sufficient staffing levels.
The Province issued Directive #2 on January 5th requiring all hospitals to ramp down all non-emergency surgeries and procedures and non-urgent diagnostic imaging and ambulatory clinic activity. As a result, we have been able to redeploy those staff to areas of the hospital with the highest need. Our needs change, often on a daily basis.
Nursing staff from our Ambulatory Care Clinics and Operating Rooms for instance, are now providing nursing care on our inpatient units. Staff who normally work in our Medical Device Reprocessing Department have been redeployed to support dietary and environmental services, as well as patient portering and wayfinding needs.
We also regularly issue shift broadcasts to our staff which offer additional shifts if they are able to accommodate to help us with various needs.
Daily staffing meetings with our leaders help plan daily and future needs. Shifts that are proposed to staff, are discussed in advance as much as possible, so they know where they will be working during their upcoming shift.
Unit managers are providing redeployed staff with a buddy to ensure there is support on the units, and there are ongoing huddles with managers to make sure everything is running well.
Overall, our goal is to ensure our patients are provided with safe, quality care and that staff are supported.
Everyone continues to work together, and they continue to show resilience and strength. I am proud of our team at Headwaters.
Kim Delahunt, President & CEO