Violence in hospitals gets out of hand

Violence seems a part of life for those working on the front lines of this country's health care system.

The impact of workplace violence on the health care industry is enormous, exacting a heavy financial toll, according to a 2006 survey by the Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia.

Facts in figures concerning violence against health care workers:

Injury claims

Nine percent of all B.C. health care workers' accepted claims are due to violence.

More than half of the accepted B.C. claims for health care workers are from nurses aides and licensed practical nurses.

One in five of the accepted B.C. claims for healthcare workers, due to violence in the workplace, is from registered nurses.

$24-million was spent from 2002 to 2006 in workers compensation claims involving violence against health-care workers, including physicians, nurses, care aides, pharmacists, housekeeping staff, technicians and administration.

162,934 days were lost in 2006 due to accepted claims of violence against health care workers in B.C.

Fourteen B.C. health workers were injured every week in 2006, as recorded in accepted violence claims.

Most often hurt workers' body parts in attacks

Arms, including wrists, fingers and elbows: 27 percent

Backs and shoulders: 25 percent

Head, including neck, face, eyes, ears and scalp: 14 percent

Violence against nurses in Canada:

A national survey of nearly 19,000 nurses done by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Health Canada and Statistics Canada in 2005 found the following:

29.6 Percent of nurses working in hospital said they were physically assaulted by a patient over the past 12 months

49.6 Percent of nurses who worked in a long-term care facility, such as a nursing home, said they were physically assaulted by a patient over the past 12 months

43.6 Percent of male nurses have faced physical assaults, be they in hospital, nursing homes, a community health centre or other health care settings

27.9 Percent of female nurses have faced physical assaults in the same settings

46.3 Percent of nurses working in a hospital said they were emotionally abused by a patient over the past 12 months

48 Percent of nurses working in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, said they were emotionally abused by a patient in the past 12 months

54.3 Percent of male nurses have reported suffering emotional abuse over the past 12 months, be it in a hospital, nursing home, a community health centre or other health-care related settings

43 Percent of female nurses have reported suffering emotional abuse in the same settings

46.7 Percent of nurses under 35 reported they have been emotionally abused by a patient in the past 12 months

38.2 Percent of nurses over 55 reported they have been emotionally abused by a patient in the past 12 months

Brampton Civic Hospital operates on wrong leg

A Brampton family is frustrated after their 72-year-old grandmother had the wrong leg cut open during Christmas Day surgery at the city's new hospital.

But residents demanding better hospital care say the alleged medical mistake is one more in a long list of complaints they've heard since the Brampton Civic Hospital opened last October 28th.

Amar Kaur Brar, 72, fractured her thigh bone when she slipped from the stairs at the family's Brampton home, her granddaughter Kanwaljot Brar, 21, told The Sun yesterday.

"She just missed one stair and fell down," Brar said.
The family took her to the emergency room at Brampton Civic where doctors told them her left leg was broken and surgery was needed.

"In the operating room, doctors cut Amar's right leg open," Brar said, adding the cut ran almost the entire length of her grandmother's thigh.

When they realized that the bone in Amar's right leg was okay, they stitched her up and performed surgery on her left leg, she said.

"She's in so much pain now," Brar said. "She can't move either leg ... she can't move at all."

Doctors told the family after surgery that they opened the wrong leg, she said.
Along with the pain, Amar has been confused and disoriented since the operation.
She remains in the hospital with her son Gurcharan Singh Brar at her side.

"We don't know what to do now for her," Brar said.

The issue is further complicated because Amar arrived in Canada from India in August and wasn't issued a health card until Thursday.
Brar said the family isn't certain if they will have to pay for the hospital care up to that point.

This week's incident comes a few weeks after 1,000 residents took to the streets protesting conditions at the hospital, where they claim patients wait up to 12 hours in the emergency room only to deal with understaffed and insensitive health-care workers.

In response to inquiries about Amar's case yesterday, the hospital issued a statement.
"William Osler Health Centre's top priority is the well-being and safety of our patients and staff," the statement reads.

The centre is made up of Brampton, Peel and Etobicoke hospitals.

In order to protect patient privacy, the hospital said it could not comment on the specific case. "We cannot release any information about a patient or any information about the care provided to a patient without his or her written consent," the release states.

The hospital does have a quality of care committee, a patient incident reporting system and a patient safety committee in place to respond if an incident occurs.

"We're following all of our processes with regard to this case," hospital communications director Gillian Williams McClean said.

Rajinder Saini of Bramptonians for Better Health Care said the incident is another in a long list of complaints the group has heard about the hospital.

"Things are not good at this new facility," Saini said.
"They use excuses like shortages of funds and staff." He called operating on the wrong leg an 'unbelievable' mistake."

"She had swelling on the broken leg, they had X-rays, they had everything," Saini said.

Media attention focused on the hospital in November when Brampton resident Harnek Sidhu, 52, allegedly waited 12 hours for a bed before he died of pancreatitis 10 days later.

Following the protests in early December, the province stepped in and appointed a hospital supervisor.

Amid the problems at the new hospital the future of the old hospital, Peel Memorial, remains uncertain.
Protesters have maintained the fast-growing city needs both hospitals to serve the burgeoning population.
A plan for the old site, that has been temporarily closed when the new hospital opened, is being developed.
Two public meetings, one January 9th at the Pearson Convention Centre and January 17th at Courtyard by Marriott on Biscayne Court, have been scheduled.
Both meetings start at 7:30 p.m.

Source: Toronto Sun

Related articles:

Brampton Civic hospital has cost $340 million more than planned

Brampton Civic Hospital under fire

The front line warriors in the pending war against the next global epidemic will carry stethoscopes and wear lab coats, and in the case of Dr. Thomas Tsang, spectacles.
And it is likely Hong Kong will be the battleground.

The mild-mannered Tsang is considered one of the world's foremost experts in fighting the devastating Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus that killed 299 people in Hong Kong and spread to Toronto in 2003.

Tsang has a huge responsibility on his hands. He is the key doctor in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region charged with ensuring the next viral outbreak, in whatever form or mutation, doesn't happen.

And if Canadians are to prevent the next tragedy, they would be wise to see what lessons have been learned in trying to stop one of the world's most deadly diseases.

"You never know what's going to happen tomorrow," Tsang said in an interview in his boardroom, which was the initial nerve centre to create a SARS response strategy during the 2003 crisis.
"You have to have a plan ready," he said. "It's not just sufficient to have a plan, you must execute it."
The normally bustling cosmopolitan financial gateway to Asia was at a standstill in 2003. Business and tourism were hardest hit by SARS which infected 1,755 residents and killed 299 from March 11 to June 6 that year.

Health-care workers and officials fought day in and day out to stop the spread of SARS.
Similar scenarios were carried out in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada where 438 people were infected, and 44 died of SARS from Feb. 23 to June 7, 2003.
SARS has been a wakeup call for health-care workers in Toronto.

Dr. Allison McGeer, director of Infection Control at Mount Sinai, said Canadians have learned from the crisis.
"There's been a number of changes in hospitals, such as guidelines for infection control, educating staff in dealing with infectious diseases, strengthening links between public health departments and hospitals, and working together more smoothly," McGeer said.

McGeer says we always have to ask ourselves: "What more can be done?"

Read the full story here

Calgary Counselling Centre threatened to loose its residence

The Calgary Counselling Centre, since 1962, has provided counselling programs to help individuals, families, couples, children, men and women resolve domestic abuse, depression, stress, emotional and social programs.
Last year, the non-profit organization served 6367 clients, through 32,264 hours of counselling.

Through its ongoing research and education program, Calgary Counselling Centre strives to meet the changing needs of the community.

Now, with 10 working days notice, the Calgary Counselling Centre is in jeopardy of losing the space they have leased and occupied since June 1992.

Mid way through a ten year lease, the Calgary Counselling Centre has been advised that its lease may be terminated on coming 31 December.

Editor's opinion:

"Is it coincidence or well planned that health care workers are being told life changing bad news just before Christmas?
Earlier this week I already reported about the Victorian nurses in Hamilton who were told they'd loose their jobs coming April.
What is it with these people, these bringers of bad news?
Do they think that those people won't kill themselves around Christmas when around family and friends?
A happy Christmas to you too, you inconsiderate @%%40!e5"

Surgical masks insufficient protection during flu pandemic

In a report released yesterday, a panel of experts said that surgical masks aren't adequate to protect people from becoming infected during an influenza pandemic,

The report, written for the Public Health Agency of Canada, suggested industrial respirators known as N95s, would be needed to minimize the risk of transmission of flu.

"Surgical masks don't really fit the bill," said Dr. Donald Low, chair of the panel which brought together infection control specialists, nurses and occupational health and safety experts.

"Even if they have a good filtering capacity, inhalable virus particles will take the route of least resistance, which will be around the mask and through the gap that exists between the surgical mask and the face, just because they're not affected by gravity"

The panel was asked to advise the public health agency on one of the most contentious issues in influenza science - how flu spreads.

The answer will be used to craft guidance for provinces and territories on what protective equipment they should consider stockpiling for health care workers in a pandemic as well as advice for the public on how to reduce the risk of getting sick in such an event.

Read the rest of the article from the Canadian Press here

"Little" communication problem causes death of immigrant

Yesterday, a Quebec coroner entered the controversial debate on reasonable accommodation by suggesting caregivers in the province should show more openness to the needs of immigrant patients.

Following the recent 4 deaths of newcomers to Quebec, Dr. Jacques Ramsay presented his reports on the accommodation of minorities to a government commission .

He told a news conference in Montreal yesterday, that the deaths could have been avoided, claiming linguistic and cultural barriers often prevent patients from getting the care they need.

Ramsay cited the example of one man who entered a psychotic state and later killed himself thinking his wife had been diagnosed as HIV positive.

In fact, the Albanian immigrant had misunderstood when hospital staff informed him his wife's blood type was A positive.

Ramsay says that health care workers should work from the assumption that no accommodation is unreasonable when it comes to somebody's health.

Original article by the Canadian Press

Editor:

"How's that for a little misunderstanding............?"

Edmonton health region renovates residences to lure nurses

Capital Health is spending $1.2 million to renovate a residence, apartment building and house to attract health workers from other countries to Edmonton.

A former nurses' residence at the Misericordia Community Hospital and an apartment building connected to the Royal Alexandra Hospital will provide temporary homes for 77 nursing recruits from other provinces and overseas.

Capital Health is also renovating a five-bedroom house near the University of Alberta Hospital.

"One of the biggest challenges these new nurses are going to face is housing and by providing the new temporary accommodations we're hoping to ease their transition to both Edmonton and Canada," said John McPhail, vice-president of the health region's human resources in a news release last Friday.

The renovations, which include new flooring, paint and sprinkler systems to meet current fire codes, are expected to finish in March 2008.