MINDEMOYA—On Friday, May 19, the Manitoulin Health Centre’s (MHC) Mindemoya site had its first ever ‘divert’ situation, meaning that the hospital had so many critical patients at one time that all other patients coming into the Mindemoya Hospital had to be diverted to the Little Current site.
“Occasionally we run into these situations because of the acuity of the patients involved,” said Derek Graham, MHC CEO. “In review and in retrospect, it was the right thing to do.”
Mr. Graham explained that when there are several patients requiring one-on-one care it doesn’t take long before the medical team is “overwhelmed.”
“It was a proactive decision,” he added.
The Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board (DSB) told its board at the May 25 meeting that a note of thanks had been passed on to them regarding the hard work and partnership between the MHC and the DSB paramedics during that situation.
Mr. Graham said this recent divert points out the need for a two-site facility on Manitoulin. Having two hospitals is also helpful when the beds are full at one site, but a bed is free at the other hospital.
Mr. Graham said he did not believe this to be the start of a trend, but also noted that the “acuity of what we see coming to us isn’t lessening. Volumes and acuity are staying steady.” The CEO added that he believed that the timing of the Mindemoya Hospital event, the Friday of a long weekend, also came into play.
