Edmonton hospital shut to fight ‘full facility’ outbreak
Closure expected to last weeks as AHS works to trace spread of the coronavirus
EDMONTON Edmonton’s Misericordia Hospital is effectively shutting its doors to the public to battle a “full facility” COVID -19 outbreak that has now left three patients dead and another 20 patients and 15 staff infected, Alberta Health Services said Wednesday.
No patients will be admitted to the hospital and day procedures and visits will be postponed or rescheduled at another Edmonton hospital. Its emergency department is also closed. Admitted patients who have tested positive for COVID -19 are being treated on two units within the hospital.
The hospital will permit visitors for “end-of-life situations only.” Arrangements will be made for labouring mothers to deliver at Grey Nuns Community Hospital.
Dr. David Zygun, Edmonton zone medical director with AHS, said the decision to declare the outbreak Wednesday was made to ensure the facility has enough staff as it continues to trace the spread of the virus.
“That may mean more staff off work, so that was really the tipping point that we took this additional step in the last 14 hours,” Zygun said at a Wednesday afternoon media update.
AHS and Covenant Health are working as a team to tackle the outbreak. Zygun said both health organizations are investigating the outbreak, including how the virus first got into the hospital.
He said at this point they believe the source to be “multifactorial.”
“All the other Edmonton zone hospitals have come together over the last hours to ensure that patient care is continued to be delivered to Edmontonians and Albertans,” said Zygun. “I think everybody appreciates that this is a very challenging situation for the patients and families at the site, our staff and physicians.”
Earlier in the pandemic when long-term care homes were hard hit, staff members working in multiple homes were identified as one way COVID-19 was being transmitted to different facilities. Zygun said AHS is working to ensure Misericordia staff are only working at one hospital.
“Our human resources teams and our operational staff are working through that as we speak. We want to minimize the cross coverage as much as possible in an outbreak situation,” said Zygun.
Susan Slade, vice-president of the Edmonton region of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), said the union, which represents 356 licensed practical nurses and health-care aides at the hospital, has been in close contact with Covenant Health and is monitoring the situation.
While it’s a scary time, she said the employees are continuing to do their jobs.
“This is what they do, they step up to the plate, they make sure that people are being looked after, and they make sure that they are protecting themselves and others so that this doesn’t get spread further,” Slade said Wednesday.
Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA) union, which represents approximately 450 people at the hospital, including respiratory therapists and laboratory staff, said this is part of what the staff are trained for.
“The system is designed to respond and it’s responded correctly to what’s been happening over there,” he said. “There’s a problem, they have responded to it, and thank God it’s a system that we still have control over in public health care.”
Parker said if officials decide to limit workers to one facility, the union will work to ensure people are able to maintain their hours.
“All that work still has to be done. It’s to maintain the safety of our
They step up to the plate, they make sure that people are being looked after.
membership and is to maintain the safety of our patients that we care for,” he said.
While acknowledging it will be a moving target, Zygun said the closure is expected to last weeks rather than days or months. He said that timeline will depend on the progression of the outbreak and how well it can be contained.
Zygun said the closure shouldn’t put a strain on services at other hospitals as the Edmonton region has done a relatively good job at “flattening the curve” of the virus.
“We also have an integrated operations centre that monitors all capacity and flow. So that’s been part of our emergency disaster management and we will react on any areas of the system that require flow to improve,” said Zygun.
The first death linked to the Misericordia outbreak, a man in his 80s, was announced last week while Alberta Health Services announced earlier this week two men in their 70s had died.
AHS had on Monday announced Misericordia was closed to new admissions and transfers for medical and surgical patients.
Latest provincial numbers show there were 46 new cases of COVID-19 in Alberta Wednesday. Those cases bring the total to 608 active in the province.
The Edmonton zone currently has 232 active cases with 29 people in hospital. Four of those hospitalizations are now in intensive care units. There was one additional death announced Wednesday bringing the total to 158 since the beginning of the pandemic. The latest death was a man in his 80s in the south zone.