Windsor Regional Hospital is introducing a new service aimed at helping support paediatric patients who attend the Emergency Departments during certain time periods to receive more timely care.
The Ontario Ministry of Health has provided WRH with funding to launch the Paediatric Emergency Diversion Service (PEDs) through the fall and winter season, with a goal of reducing the time paediatric patients spend in the Emergency Department and, in turn, optimizing ED resources and reducing overcrowding.
This unique service run by a paediatric speciality team will be available on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. These periods are the busiest times for paediatric services, when there are limited services for paediatric patients elsewhere in the community.
Over the last fiscal year (April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023), WRH saw approximately 95,000 Emergency Department visits, with approximately 10,000 to 12,000 of those being paediatric patients.
During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, WRH operated a stand-alone clinic focused on paedatric patients needing care for respiratory issues. This service was called the Paediatric Urgent Medical Assessment (PUMA) clinic.
As we prepared for this fall and winter season, WRH worked with the Ontario Ministry of Health to tailor a modified program to meet the current needs of the paedetric population.
The new service will see patients under the age of 17 triaged in the Emergency Department who meet specific clinical criteria. If they meet the criteria, they’ll be quickly assessed by an ED provider before being brought to a dedicated space on the pediatric unit at Met Campus.
Here, they will be treated by a specialized team including a pediatrician and pediatric nurse, supported by Diagnostic Imaging and Lab services.
“The new Paediatric Emergency Diversion Service will help ensure our paediatric patients are receiving efficient, high quality care during peak time for respiratory illnesses during times when the availability to community services is limited,” said Rosemary Petrakos, Vice President of Surgery, Peri-operative, and Women’s & Children’s Services, Windsor Regional Hospital.
The Paediatric Emergency Diversion Service will go live today, September 8, 2023, at Met Campus and, again, will be operational Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.
So they’ll be prioritized over other people, with emergencies? What about our senior citizens? If anyone should be given priority at ERs, it’s old people. Quite often, old people have other disabilities and medical problems that make them less likely to be able to endure long wait times at ER departments. The stress alone (of being in the ER) is enough to cause these vulnerable people to have heart attacks or strokes. There needs to be better care and more emphasis put on old people. If any group should be given faster care, it’s the over 75 demographic.