Guelph General Hospital will reduce its number of beds from 181 to 165, hospital officials announced on Feb. 11.
Programs are being put in place to increase support for Alternate Level of Care (ALC) patients.
President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Ernst said he believes lowering the number of beds can be done without significantly impacting services.
It all came down to money.
“It was a decision made after lengthy deliberations and following the province’s seven-step process for identifying and prioritizing cost savings,” he said.
He added the decision was made knowing that the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network is working with other health service providers to implement new initiatives to help reduce the number of alternative level of care patients waiting in hospital beds for placement elsewhere, such as in long-term care facilities.
“We have had as many as 43 ALC patients in acute care beds,” he said. “The new capacity will help to ensure our acute care beds are available for those who truly need them.”
As well, “St. Joseph’s Health Centre will be adding a new program of up to eight transition beds effective April 1,” said Marianne Walker, President and CEO of St. Joseph’s Health Centre. “We will receive additional … to reduce the number of ALC patients waiting in hospital beds.”
Ernst said, “Over the past few months, we have been dealing with an infectious disease outbreak on one of our medical units and over time had to completely empty it of patients. What we learned … we can reduce the number of our inpatient beds on an ongoing basis.”
With the changes, the hospital can realizing savings to address its budget shortfall of $3.1-million for 2009/10.
The total annual savings of the bed change will be $1-million. There will also be 30 layoff notices to staff working on the unit being closed, but officials said they expect most staff will have an opportunity to be relocated within the hospital, according to Rod Carroll, vice-president of human resources.
He said there are current hospital vacancies available to fill, and attrition will also be a factor.
“Historically, we’ve been very successful in placing affected employees who want to continue to work at Guelph General Hospital,” said Carroll.
“Human resources staff will work closely with our unions and the hospital management team to place those affected employees.”
