Patient dies in ER at Red Deer Regional Hospital as wait times spike to 14 hours on weekend
CBC
Doctors at the Red Deer Regional Hospital warn that conditions are taking a toll at the central Alberta facility after a patient died in the ER and the estimated wait time spiked to 14 hours on the weekend.
The patient died in the emergency department Sunday morning, Alberta Health Services has confirmed.
The patient had been triaged and was later reassessed by emergency department staff, and was waiting for further care, AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson said Tuesday.
The department was fully staffed at the time but there was a surge in demand and an increase in very sick patients, he said.
"We do not know if this incident was the result of wait times in the Red Deer emergency department," Williamson said, adding AHS is reviewing this incident.
In the early morning hours on Saturday, the estimated wait time for the ER at the hospital hit 14 hours.
AHS said the weekend demand surged dramatically with an influx of COVID-19 patients and people injured due to falls on the ice.
According to AHS, the 14-hour estimated wait time was brief and applied to less urgent cases.
The health authority noted the average wait time for non-urgent patients admitted to the hospital between 12:30 a.m. to 11:46 p.m. on Saturday was three hours and 43 minutes.
"It's very difficult," said Dr. John Colebrook, a Red Deer emergency room physician.
According to Colebrook, roughly two-thirds of the emergency room beds on the weekend were taken up by patients who were already admitted and waiting for a bed elsewhere in the hospital.
"When wait times are 12, 14 hours, it's suboptimal. The conditions are not good. We will do our best to see the sickest patients. If you're not that sick, then you'll be triaged lower down and it will take longer to be seen."
The Red Deer Regional Hospital — which serves nearly half a million people in central Alberta — regularly runs over capacity.
A 2015 AHS report showed, at that time, the hospital was short 96 in-patient and 18 emergency room beds.
