Staff burnout. Hallway medicine. A shortage of family doctors. Healthcare in Ontario has been characterized as being at a “breaking point”. Hamilton has seen its share of challenges when it comes to healthcare, especially with hospitals being at capacity and patients being cared for in hallways.

In this episode of Vital Signs, Rudi Wallace hosts Tracey MacArthur (CEO, Hamilton Health Sciences) to talk about these challenges and what Hamilton Health Sciences is doing to address them.

Key quotes

“Hamilton Health Sciences is one of Canada’s largest integrated health networks…we’re unique in that we provide care from pre-birth to end-of-life…We have access to world class regional programs: cardiac care, stroke, trauma care, a cancer hospital, a pediatric hospital. We have one of the only two burns centres in the province…We are one the region’s largest employers: over 18,000 staff, volunteers and physicians that work in Hamilton.” – on what makes HHS unique

“We make programming decisions based on the what the data is telling us, most importantly, what communities we are not getting to. We have very targeted initiatives like our first Indigenous health plan that we worked on with Indigenous communities.” – on serving equity-deserving communities

“We’ve worked to eliminate virtually all nursing agency-use through the recruitment of full-time nursing staff, a good stable workforce in our community, permanent staff that can become of a stable team.” – on post-pandemic nursing shortages

“We’ve moved into the top 10 of organizations in the province who are able to get ambulances back on the road after dropping patients off in emergency room. But the demand for care will always outstrip what we have available, so we have to get creative. The system has to shift. We have an aging population that is placing pressure on our system and if we do things the way we always have, that’s not going to be sustainable.” – on the strain on the hospital system

“We’re using some wonderful remote monitoring tools for people after surgery, so you can actually recover at home. That allows us to discharge patients faster and free up hospital space.” – on examples of how HHS is working to reduce pressure on hospitals

“It’s a significant point of moral distress when there’s someone we’ve cared for in hospital and they’re ready to be discharged and they don’t have a home to go to. It all hinges on stronger partnerships with community housing providers. We run a warming centre in partnership with St. Joe’s so we can discharge unhoused patients but they can have somewhere to go that’s warm and safe.” – on HHS treating unhoused people