Saskatchewan Health Authority looking into death at RUH emergency

On Tuesday the provincial New Democratic Party (NDP) released internal Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) emails that indicated the SHA is dealing with ‘an extreme overcapacity crisis‘ at Royal University Hospital (RUH) and St. Paul’s Hospital.

The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) said that overcrowding, coupled with understaffing problems  recently lead to the death of a patient at RUH in the emergency department.

SUN President, Tracy Zambory, said the patient died because they couldn’t get to an area where they could get proper treatment.

“This person entered into the system, and was not able to access proper care and not able to get to the next level (of care) in the emergency room (ER), because it was filled with people.”

Zambory said SUN wants to talk with the SHA about how they can all work together to ensure these incidents don’t happen.

The SHA said it is conducting a critical incident review in response to the patient’s death.

Dr. Rashaad Hansia is the Physician Executive, Integrated Urban Health for the SHA. He said the review will look at all factors that could have contributed to the patient’s death in the ER.

“All of the circumstances around the incident are looked at, and certainly capacity would be one thing, I would imagine,” said Hansia.

He said, as for the overcrowding problem, they will be looking at ways of dealing with it, including people who shouldn’t be at the hospital.

“One of the first things they’re looking at is how to place people who don’t need to be in an acute care facility, and get them into an appropriate place. It could a long term care facility, or it may be another hospital, or it could be their home.”

Hansia said there are many reasons the hospitals could be having these overcrowding issues, from the flu season to more deep-rooted causes.

“I don’t have hard data, but anecdotally from my clinical practice, I would say mental health and addictions are both big issues,” said Hansia.

He also said it’s important that people who feel they really need the ER, to go to the ER, but just know that you will be assessed, and the most urgent cases will be dealt with first.