Don't seek COVID-19 tests at ERs: officials
Emergency departments in the city have seen a spike in the number of people coming to hospital in search of COVID-19 tests.
The increase in the number of patients asking for tests in hospital coincides with the move to an appointment-based model for COVID-19 tests at the city's assessment centres.
Ottawa's COVID-19 testing task force is aware of the problem.
“Our partners have reported increases in emergency department patients requesting a COVID-19 test, and we are looking for trends and patterns to better understand if this is in fact tied to an appointment based testing model,” a spokesman for the task force said in an emailed response to questions. “Over the coming weeks, the task force will continue to monitor emergency department testing activity to identify potential causes and put forward a plan to resolve them.” The task force stressed that people should not go to the emergency department for COVID-19 tests since there is capacity across all of Ottawa's assessment centres. Earlier this month, confronted by huge lineups at COVID-19 assessment centres, the province ordered all walk-in centres in Ontario to move to an online booking system. Ottawa's assessment centres launched appointment based testing on Oct. 6.
In the days after that move, Montfort Hospital's emergency department saw an extra 15 people a day come in to be tested for COVID-19. But that surge stopped recently, said communications director Geneviève Picard, adding: “The message from the task force must have been heard.”
At Queensway Carleton Hospital, five or six people a day have been coming into the emergency department, said communications director Ann Fuller. Those people, she said, have been redirected to the COVID-19 Care Clinic on Moodie Drive.
“This is not a big issue at QCH: Overall, most are booking directly with Moodie, which is great and we are thankful,” Fuller said.
The hospital, she said, has seen a recent rise in the number of COVID-19 patients coming to the emergency department for treatment. Most are well enough to go home, she said, but sick enough to need emergency care and support.
“We are also seeing an increase in people in our emergency who are in need of assessment and treatment and who do end up testing positive for COVID,” Fuller added. “Again, these are people who are well enough to go home, but for whom it was appropriate for them to seek some emergency care.”
At CHEO, the hospital has performed 166 COVID-19 tests on emergency department patients in the past month, but it has not disrupted operations, said spokesman Paddy Moore.
The Ottawa Hospital did not have figures for the number of people who have come into the emergency department seeking COVID-19 tests during the past two weeks. Most of those who are tested in the hospital are there for some kind of medical care, said spokesperson Michaela Schreiter.
According to the city's testing task force, 2,067 swabs were taken at Ottawa assessment centres and 2,960 tests were processed in labs during the past 24 hours. It takes, on average, 16 hours for people identified as high risk to receive their test results.
The Ottawa COVID-19 testing task force, formed to co-ordinate testing efforts across the city, includes representatives from the city's hospitals, community health centres, Ottawa Public Health and the Eastern Ontario Laboratory Association.
The task force recently scouted locations for a new downtown assessment centre to serve the area during the winter. But according to a memo sent Thursday to city council, the project faces a number of hurdles, including staffing and equipment shortages.
The province has also established strict guidelines for new assessment centres because of limited lab capacity and the increasing demand for tests.