Hospitals seek 738 more staff
Staff shortages cause strain at same time severe overcrowding a concern
Hamilton’s hospitals are short 738 staff at a time when they are struggling to cope with overcrowding and heightened numbers of COVID-19 patients.
Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) had 488 vacancies as of Tuesday — about 155 of those were for nurses.
“We have very few applicants for those positions at the present time,” said Dr. Michael Stacey, chief medical executive at HHS.
“There’s a global shortage of trained health-care professionals ... It’s the staff shortages that are really causing the strain on the organization.”
St. Joseph’s Healthcare had 250 jobs posted and roughly 165 of them were for nurses.
“Staffing levels and staffing burnout remain among our biggest concerns,” St. Joseph’s president Melissa Farrell said in a statement. “Our vacancy rate is about three times that of pre-pandemic levels. Many staff are tired and feeling the mental and physical strains of two years of the pandemic. Many areas are working short-staffed and many staff have put in overtime hours to support their colleagues.”
Stacey expressed similar worry for the staff filling the gaps left by so many job openings.
“The pressures they’re under, the strains they’re under, it really does impact them,” said Stacey. “We are concerned about the wellness of that staff and the impact of these stressors on them.”
On top of the vacancies, the hospitals also have high numbers of staff off work self-isolating because of COVID — 331 staff were missing on Tuesday.
Both hospital networks have also lost staff due to mandatory COVID vaccine policies — HHS fired 178 staff in January out of a workforce of 13,369, while St. Joseph’s moved toward the final step of termination against 59 workers in April.
“Being vaccinated is absolutely essential to enable the health system to get through the various crises that we’ve had through this pandemic,” said Stacey.
The staffing crisis comes as Hamilton’s hospitals are significantly overcrowded. Occupancy was 113 per cent at Juravinski Hospital on Tuesday, 110 per cent at Hamilton General Hospital and 104 per cent at St. Joseph’s. Ideal is 85 per cent to 90 per cent.
“Two years of the pandemic have placed us in a position where there is increasing demand for care at a time when our staffing situation is beyond strained,” said Farrell. “The pandemic has created a backlog of patient care across the health-care system.”
The hospitals have a waiting list of 14,585 for surgeries alone. In addition, Farrell said the number of patients coming to the emergency department has been higher than prepandemic levels for several weeks and urgent care has been reaching record levels.
“There is a higher level of illness and/or injury among many of these patients, and as a result we are admitting more of these patients to hospital,” she said.
“With the high acute-care occupancy rate, it has been difficult to find beds for these patients in a timely manner. This impacts our ability to take in new patients into the emergency department, and while we have taken many measures to improve the situation, it has, at points, resulted in longer stays ... for ambulances.”
Hamilton’s hospitals also account for seven of Hamilton’s 28 ongoing outbreaks in high-risk settings.
The number of hospitalized COVID patients in Hamilton is predicted to remain high until July — it was at 153 on Tuesday. Scarsin software forecasting estimates 42 Hamiltonians will die of COVID between now and the end of August.
The city reported three more deaths Tuesday of seniors age 70 and older to bring pandemic fatalities 545.
“There is no single solution to the challenges we’re facing,” stated HHS in an update to the community April 28. “These are heavy burdens, but we’re doing our best to protect our workforce and ensure our patients get the care they need.”
‘‘ There is no single solution to the challenges we’re facing.
HAMILTON HEALTH SCIENCES COMMUNITY UPDATE