As key indicators for COVID-19, such as hospitalizations, continue to improve in the province and further stabilize in northern Ontario, Temiskaming Hospital will ease its visitor restrictions allowing for acute and long-term care patients to have access to two Designated Care Partners with only one present at a time, beginning, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Temiskaming Hospital implemented the second most restrictive phase of its Care Partner Policy on April 9, 2022, because of an outbreak at the hospital that saw the highest COVID-19 patient levels since the beginning of the pandemic. Those restrictions allowed for only palliative, obstetric, pediatric and certain out-patients to have Designated Care Partners. On April 25, 2022, the outbreak was declared over at the hospital, however, both the hospital and the community continued to have high incidence of COVID-19, so Care Partner restrictions were maintained. General visitation is still on hold.

“With provincial health care indicators continuing to improve and indicators levelling out in the district, we have been able to cautiously lift care partner restrictions.” said President & CEO, Mike Baker. He continued, “Putting visitor restrictions into place is a very challenging decision as we know how important mental health plays on patient outcomes, so we are happy to announce the lifting of restrictions on Tuesday with further easing of restrictions coming in the near future, if conditions continue to improve.”

Previous care partner visitations for, palliative, obstetrical and pediatric patients are still in place. Care partners are also allowed to accompany outpatients who need support due to physical, intellectual, cognitive and emotional conditions or needing a substitute decision-maker while attending the hospital for appointments, tests, procedures or emergent care.

Care partners will need to show proof of vaccination and identification prior to entering the facility. Consideration may be made for care partner vaccine exceptions in the following instances, however, additional Personal Protective Equipment standards may be required to further reduce risk:

• Patients who are near end-of-life.
• Patients admitted to obstetrics.
• Pediatric/Adolescent <16 years of age.
• Patients who may be experiencing a mental health crisis, or who have a significant development or intellectual delay (ex: dementia, inability to effectively communicate).

All Designated Care Partners must pass the screening questionnaire administered by the hospital’s Screening Agents prior to entering the hospital.

“I would like to personally thank each of you who have treated our staff with kindness and respect,” said Baker. “The Omicron variant has made an unprecedented virus even more difficult to deal with and we have come through this in much better shape than would have otherwise been the case, because of our dedicated team at the Hospital and because of your support!”

The team at Temiskaming Hospital continue to meet weekly to evaluate policies, while ensuring patients’ health and well-being are at the forefront of every decision.

Temiskaming Hospital’s mission is to provide quality, patient-centered health care and education close to home. For more information about Temiskaming Hospital, please visit www.temiskaming-hospital.com.

The COVID-19 outbreak effective April 9, 2022, is now considered over.

 “While the news that the outbreak cases have been resolved is welcomed, our hospital continues to see increasing hospitalizations for COVID patients, “said President & CEO Mike Baker. “As a result, we will retain our current temporary restrictions on Care Partner visitations and patient leaves and reassess removing some or all of those restrictions next Monday, May 2, 2022.”   

Temiskaming Hospital is asking for the public’s cooperation with the following to help minimize the risk of transmission to and from patients, visitors and staff:

• All in-patient areas of the hospital are temporarily closed to visitors and Designated Care Partners for long-term care and acute care patients until further notice.
• Designated Care Partners are still allowed for palliative, obstetrical and pediatric patients.
• Care partners are also allowed to accompany outpatients who need support due to physical, intellectual, cognitive and emotional conditions or needing a substitute decision-maker while attending the hospital for appointments, tests, procedures or emergent care.
• Care partners will need to show proof of vaccination and identification prior to entering the facility.
• All Designated Care Partners must pass the screening questionnaire administered by the hospital’s Screening Agents prior to entering the hospital.

“I continue to urge the public to be kind and respectful of all our staff as we do everything we can, to protect you, your loved-ones and our staff.” concluded Baker.

The Timiskaming Health Unit is working with the Hospital in ensuring best practices are being followed during this time.

Temiskaming Hospital will continue to update the public on the outbreak.

Temiskaming Hospital and Extendicare Inc are partnering to expand the current Health Care Campus at the hospital site on Shepherdson Road in Temiskaming Shores.

The provincial government recently announced this development in a release regarding its commitment to build 30,000 much-needed net new long-term care beds in the province by 2028. Ontario now has 31,705 new and 28,648 upgraded beds in development across the province.

Extendicare received approval for the redevelopment of the existing Extendicare Tri-Town long-term care home with an allocation of 68 new beds and replacement of the current 60 beds to create a 128-bed home through the construction of a new building.

“This is an exciting announcement that will help address our long-standing issue at the hospital.” said Temiskaming Hospital President & CEO, Mike Baker. “Our high occupancy rate has been an issue for several years, fed by very high counts of patients who should be cared for in long-term care setting.”

This past year, the hospital’s occupancy rate averaged 108% for the year, with 11 of the 12 months at or exceeding 100% occupancy. Of the total occupancy last year, 52% were Alternative Level of Care (ALC) patients who would have been more appropriately cared for in long-term care.

“Extendicare has been an outstanding partner in the development of the next phase of the Health Care Campus at the hospital.” continued Baker.” The additional sixty-eight beds will certainly address the hospital’s ALC issue and further reduce the wait list for long-term care spaces in south Timiskaming.”

“We are grateful to the Government of Ontario for approval of our plan to redevelop Extendicare Tri-Town and replace it with a new home built to state-of-the-art design standards, to better serve our current residents and increase care capacity for 68 more seniors in need,“ said Dr. Michael Guerriere, President and CEO of Extendicare. “We look forward to continued collaboration with the Temiskaming Hospital, municipal and system partners in the region, and with our current residents and families to begin planning for the new building together.”

In less than 5 years, the hospital has added four health care partners to the hospital site including Community Cancer Care, Alzheimer Society, Mino M’shki-ki Indigenous Health Team and Keeper’s of The Circle Daycare, to the Canadian Back Institute and VitalAire as existing health care tenants.

“The benefits of having these partners located at the hospital have been significant for patients, family members and our community in general.” concluded Baker.” And we welcome Extendicare’s new development as a further anchor to our health care campus.”