By Shawn Bailey
Dauphin Herald
Staffing issues have resulted in recent temporary closures of the Special Care Unit at Dauphin Regional Health Centre, but the public can rest assured that no one who needs care is being turned away, says Parkland Regional Health Authority CEO Allan Bradley.
“When we suspend SCU services, we still have a fully functioning emergency department, so the suspensions do not impact our ability to maintain emergency medical services at those times,” he said, adding there have been two recent closures of the unit and more may be necessary.
“Anyone that requires an urgent procedure at Dauphin Regional Health Centre’s emergency room is being seen and admissions to a hospital bed are based on a physician’s assessment of need and available resources.”
Shortages can occur for a number of reasons ranging from an overall shortfall of nurses at the facility to those who are employed in the region taking time off due to illness or vacations.
“We want to make sure our nurses get personal time off because if we keep bringing them back on overtime we are going to burn them out,” Bradley said, adding the region attempts to provide the staff that can safely provide care.
That is most critical in units such as the Special Care Unit where patients require a high level of care and receive close clinical supervision in an environment that involves a high nurse-to-patient ratio.
Often nurses from the Emergency and Special Care Units are able to help each other and allow those ratios to remain within acceptable parametres, Bradley said.
That is not always the case, however.
“But keeping the emergency department open is the priority and we can’t pull our nurses from emergency and have them do special care,” he said.
As a result when the number of staff fall below accepted industry standards, the DRHC has no choice but to close the Special Care Unit.
“That is what is happening here. If we drop below the minimum requirements for a Special Care Unit, then we will not offer the service,” Bradley said.
“We are trying our best to keep all of our services open all of the time. But when we do have staff shortages we do the best we can to minimize the length of time the service is closed.”
Co-operation of staff has allowed the facility to lessen the impact of unit closures.
“They work extremely hard with our managers to make sure we continue to operate without service disruptions,” Bradley said, adding aggressive recruitment is underway in an effort to bolster the number of nurses and ease the pressure being placed on existing staff.
“Many nurses pick up extra shifts and we appreciate their level of commitment. They are so dedicated they feel bad when the service can’t be provided.”