We’ve come too far to let our guards down now
As children return to in-person learning and with colder weather and flu season on the way, Mackenzie Health continues to prepare for an increase in COVID-19 cases and a potential increase in hospital activity during the fourth wave of the pandemic. We appreciate the community’s efforts to curb COVID-19 transmission to help ensure our hospitals don’t get overwhelmed.
This past month Mackenzie Health opened an expanded day surgery and minor procedures unit at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital to get more procedures and surgeries done faster and help clear the backlog. We also had a visit from a Stanley Cup champion with two lucky newborns and their parents, which brought smiles to many faces.
All this and more in this edition of the Insider.
Planning for the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic
The fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is upon us, and Mackenzie Health is actively planning to ensure our staff and physicians are ready for a potential increase in COVID-19 patients needing care in our hospitals.
We’re not yet experiencing the same volume of patients that we saw during the third wave, however we continue to care for some of the highest volumes of COVID-19 patients in the province. The majority of those currently hospitalized with COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated. With schools reopening, colder weather on the way and flu season approaching, we all need to do our part to make sure hospitals don’t become overwhelmed, which could result in delays in care, pausing of scheduled procedures and further burnout of the health care workers who have been at the front lines of this pandemic since day one.
The pandemic isn’t over yet and now is not the time to let down our guard.
Supporting long-term care
The Mackenzie Health community support team continues to work with more than 100 congregate care facilities in our catchment area. While the last outbreak at a long-term care home ended in June, our team has been continuing to provide an average of 120 education and audit sessions per month to staff and essential caregivers to sustain best practices and keep these settings outbreak-free. Our team has also been working to build capacity within these homes by teaching screeners how to perform swab tests, as well as reinforcing Infection Prevention and Control best practices at each site to support staff as they keep the most vulnerable among us safe.
Ramping up surgical procedures
To further support our community’s needs, we are repurposing some of the spaces at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital that were vacated by programs that recently moved to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. Over the summer months, we began plans to ramp up surgical procedures. This included turning the former home of the Woman and Child program into an ambulatory procedures space. This will double the current space offered for ambulatory clinics and day surgery, including increased capacity for endoscopy, urology and minor procedures like biopsies and the treatment of wounds and burns. This increased capacity means we can get procedures done faster, in a refreshed space. This much-needed capacity will address the minor procedures backlog and transfer work out of our main operating rooms at both hospitals.
Vaccines will get us through the pandemic
Alongside most hospitals in Ontario Health’s Central Region, Mackenzie Health has implemented a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy. This decision was not made lightly, but it is an effective way to ensure a safe environment for our patients, staff, physicians, volunteers and the vulnerable populations in our community. The shared goal of hospitals in our region is to achieve 100 per cent full vaccination among existing and incoming staff, physicians, contractors, learners and volunteers, except those with a medical exemption or accommodation. We are working to ensure that everyone at Mackenzie Health feels supported in the vaccination effort, and we will work together to ensure everyone at our organization is fully vaccinated.
The COVID-19 vaccine remains the best tool we have available to us to end the pandemic and we continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated.
There are plenty of opportunities available to members of the community to get vaccinated across York Region. More information for members of the public who still need to get vaccinated can be found at www.york.ca/COVID19Vaccine
Our littlest fans welcome a Stanley Cup champion
Anthony Cirelli of the Tampa Bay Lightning shows off the Stanley Cup to a new dad and his baby at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital.
On Friday, August 27, a Stanley Cup champion visited Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital in the spiritual care courtyard to meet his newest and littlest fans. Anthony Cirelli, a Woodbridge native and forward for the Tampa Bay Lightning, brought the Stanley Cup by his local community hospital to put a smile on the faces of some of our tiniest patients and their parents in a safe and physically-distanced way.
Join us for a virtual panel discussion with Mackenzie Health’s mental health experts
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted us all in many ways. We’ve had to manage through fear and uncertainty, adjust to working from home, pivot from in-class to virtual schooling (and back to in-class!) and limit our face-to-face interactions with family and friends. While these measures have kept us safe from the COVID-19 virus, they have undoubtedly had an impact on our mental health. Sadly, we see this reflected in our hospitals. During the pandemic, Mackenzie Health saw an increase in the level of acuity of the patients who come to us for mental health support. Patients were coming in sicker and in need of more advanced levels of care.
Mackenzie Health’s team of mental health experts is here to help address the top questions and concerns from residents in western York Region and beyond.
You’re invited to a free mental health virtual panel discussion
Wednesday, October 20, 2021, at 7 p.m.
Register and submit a question to our experts today! Registration will close on Monday, October 18, 2021.
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