Wandering patients spur hospital changes
A higher security fence and 20 additional security cameras currently being installed at Alberta Hospital Edmonton will help reduce the number of patients leaving without permission.
They are some of the more than two dozen changes in the works at the northeast hospital that treats a large number of psychiatric patients.
The smoking policy will be changed so only patients with grounds privileges are allowed outside for a cigarette. Smokers not allowed outside will be given nicotine substitutes, Martin Snaterse, executive director of the hospital, said Thursday.
Also, each incident of unauthorized leaving will be entered in a patient’s record so staff can be aware of the risk in each case.
These measures are part of an ambitious new provincewide strategy designed to combat the problem of mental patients who leave hospitals without permission while under care at 18 designated mental-health facilities.
“I’m confident in two years there will be significant progress,” said Snaterse, adding he was “impressed” with the thoroughness of the review by Alberta Health Services.
While most patients return within a few hours, that’s not always the case.
In 2011, more than two dozen patients left the hospital without permission, some just briefly, or overstayed after a program, for instance.
In July 2011, Melissa Ekkel- enkamp, who was paranoid and had bipolar disorder, left and hospital and has never been found. A second patient, Douglass Campbell, left that month and was located downtown.
In December 2008, Lorraine Adolphe, bipolar and schizophrenic, had only been at Alberta Hospital a day or two when she stepped outside for 15-minute smoke break and never came back in. Her body was found in a snowbank not far from the door. Such incidents prompted the AHS review.
Smoking policies are critical as smokers are more likely to wander, and men are more likely than women to go missing, Snaterse said.
The key to success with smokers will be the use of medical nicotine substitutes. Hospital staff must get nicotine replacements to patients before they go into withdrawal and want to leave, he said.
It’s critical to make the patients comfortable, though they will now have access to smokingcessation programs in hospital and when they are back in the community to encourage them to drop the habit.
If this strategy is not successful, the report keeps the door open to building secure smoking facilities outside — though that would seem to be a backward step, Snaterse added.
“It’s a matter of balancing the needs for safety and security and keeping the hospital a comfortable place for healing.”
The report also calls for a provincewide “risk assessment tool” so staff can better determine risk when granting a pass, for instance. Institutions will also take steps to encourage a warm and welcoming atmosphere. That is the key to making people want to stay, he Snaterse said.
Patients and their families were all consulted during the review process. For the first time, the new standards will be applied provincewide, he added.