My colleague Dr. Eddy Lang was interviewed for a Montreal Gazette article based on something that he contributed to their editorial page.
Dr. Lang has been an ER doc for many years (I don't want to embarrass him by saying how many, but a lot!). He worked at the Jewish General before moving to Calgary when an opportunity he couldn't turn down beckoned but he has maintained his Montreal contacts and visits and lectures here on a regular basis. In the past he has shared with us his insights on how to manage the situation in the emergency rooms better. Not just with respect to the flow of patients within the department but also with an eye towards improving patient care and also their dignity. Today he shared some of that with the rest of you and all I can say is: bravo!
His solutions aren't theoretical and they won't cost the system more money but as opposed to the current proposals bandied about by our politicians on both sides of the floor of the National Assembly, these solutions work. They've already been tested not only in the rest of the world but in Canada too (Alberta is still part of Canada, isn't it?).
Dr. Lang proposes that the overcrowding of the Emergency Room not be viewed in isolation; that the entire hospital has a role to play and that when overcrowding reaches a critical level (as defined by the hospital not a government functionary) then stable patients stuck in the emergency on a gurney waiting for a bed are taken from the emergency room to the floor.
You would think that this small change, just moving a patient from the emergency to a floor, shouldn't make a difference but we all know that it does. Out of sight is out of mind and with the patient in the emergency it's easy to go on with business as usual on the floor. But move that patient upstairs onto a gurney in the corridor and you would be amazed (actually, maybe you wouldn't) to see how quickly things are organized to get that patient out of the corridor and into a room. No extra costs, no extra beds, nurses or staff but people become more efficient when the problem is staring them in the face.
The other comment not really highlighted but just as important for patient safety is that patient care should determine the number of docs allowed to work in the emergency room and not a government pencil pusher. The situation of doctors working along overnight in an overcrowded emergency room is a something that should not be tolerated and as Eddy points out, no doctor works alone in an emergency room, even overnight, in Calgary. We should be able to hire the staff we need to treat patients safely in our departments even overnight.
So thank you Eddy for saying what needed to be said. If only someone would listen!