Health authority frees up hospital beds by opting for at-home COVID care

While hospitalizations in the province appear to be on the decline, some Montreal hospitals are working to free up more hospital beds by switching to at-home care.

Health authorities in the city are trying to discharge elderly patients as soon as possible, in favour of offering them medical care from the comfort of their homes. 

Jeanne Dumont Morissette caught COVID-19 just before the holidays, and said she didn't want to be treated at a hospital if she could avoid it.

"It didn't want to go to the hospital, I felt more secure at home and I didn't want to give that up," she said.

The Verdun CLSC took control of her file, collaborating with the long-term care home where Morissette lived to offer at-home care. Blood tests, adjustments to medication and treatment plans were all conducted from the home.

Dr. Éveline Gaillardetz, a doctor with the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l'île-de-Montréal says long-term care homes aren't equipped to handle medical care on their own, since they don't have sufficient access to on-site nurses and doctors.

"But when an elderly person is sick, with COVID or something else, there are ways to organize their care and avoid hospitalisations," said Gaillardetz, who is part of the team that organizes home care.

It's a program that existed before COVID-19. Dr. Bao Phan, a doctor at the Verdun Hospital, said that if they had tried to implement it during the pandemic, it would have been "total chaos."

But she says thanks to good communication with Dr. Gaillardetz and her team, they've been able to avoid hospitalizing some patients and "taken pressure off" the hospital.

"They completely transformed certain floors of the long-term care home into a red unit … almost like a hospital!"

According to the CIUSSS, up to 10 per cent of their hospital beds are occupied by patients who have completed their acute care and who could return to their homes.

The Notre-Dame Hospital recently refitted an unused floor for patients who have finished their care, but are waiting for a space to open in a long-term care facility.

"At Notre-Dame, the effect was immediate. We freed up five to eight beds," said Daria Leboeuf, the clinical-administrative coordinator for the Verdun and Notre-Dame hospitals.

As Quebec Premier François Legault calls for a complete "overhaul" of the health care network, Gaillardetz said she hopes the province seriously considers expanding at-home care.

"We are at the start of this accelerated aging of the population, at the start of this grey tsunami, and if home care is not deployed more, we are going to hit a wall. That's obvious."