Saskatoon emergency rooms spend downtime prepping

Saskatoon emergency rooms have had fewer patients recently, but it’s given staff time to prepare every single space for COVID-19.

“As we saw our first case (of COVID-19) come to Saskatchewan our emergency visit numbers decreased quite significantly-and for about two and a half weeks they remained quite low,” Dr Joanna Smith, the area lead of Saskatoon emergency departments told 650 CKOM.

She said there are a lot of theories why the numbers dropped so dramatically.

“Part of staying home is you’re less likely to injure yourself or get into any accidents,” she said were some theories. “I think there was also concern that the hospital would be overrun with the COVID patients and maybe a misconception that the hospital was a not-safe place to receive care.”

During this slower time, emergency rooms in Saskatoon have undergone significant work to ensure safety, according to Smith.

“We reviewed every single room in the emergency department to make sure that the equipment in it was appropriate, that the construction was appropriate, that the airflow was appropriate,” Smith explained.

She said the detailed and precise work involved large dedicated teams.

In the last week, Smith said ER visitor numbers have started to return to near-normal levels.

“We just continue practicing to get better every day,” she said about on-going efforts of the staff. “Every day we run sims (simulations) every day we review our process to make sure everything is working properly.”

As for the provincial governments re-open plan, Smith, who’s been an ER doctor in Saskatoon for 11 years, is cautiously optimistic.

“When you learn about a walk-back plan you sort of hold your breath a little bit in the hopes that it works the way it’s anticipated,” she said. “But we know that any walk-back plan has the potential to allow for a bit of a surge in the patients that we see.”

Anyone not sure if they should visit an emergency room should contact 811, a family physician through telehealth or by visiting an urgent care centre, according to Smith.