Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic Halton Healthcare has worked with the provincial government and its regional partners in supporting the local health system response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to rising COVID-19 cases, the province has now initiated a GTA Hospital Incident Management System (IMS) structure to monitor hospital capacity needs across the region in real time. The GTA Hospital IMS is a single regional decision-making body with the authority to move patients to and from hospitals. Halton Healthcare’s IMS partner hospitals include Trillium Health Partners (THP), William Osler Health System (Osler) and Headwaters Healthcare Centre.
COVID-19 patients cared for by each health hospital system as of January 12, 2021 are:
- 35 in Halton
- 116 in Trillium
- 92 in Osler
- 6 in Headwaters
Halton Healthcare Hospitals
Trillium Health Partner Hospitals
William Osler Health System Hospitals
Headwaters Healthcare Centre is located in Orangeville
“Now more than ever it is important that hospitals work together as one system to ensure we respond to increasing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in wave 2,” said Denise Hardenne, President & CEO, Halton Healthcare. “We have been able to support the system hospitals with additional capacity created by two internal field hospitals. Our internal field hospitals were built at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) and Milton District Hospital (MDH) in April of last year. To-date, Halton Healthcare has accepted 91 patient transfers from other facilities.”
To-date, Halton Healthcare has accepted 91 patient transfers from other facilities.
The 12-bed internal field hospital at MDH has been in use since June 2020 and in early December 2020 Halton Healthcare opened the internal field hospital at OTMH to further increase bed capacity. The OTMH unit is used for short-stay, stable patients. It is not used to care for COVID-19 positive patients or for those under investigation for COVID-19. The OTMH internal field hospital has created capacity for up to 40 more patient beds across the health care system.
“We were able to build both our internal field hospitals using existing shelled-in space that was built to accommodate future expansion of our hospitals. Making use of existing space inside the hospital provides better access to existing infrastructure and adjacencies to support services such as clinical staff, diagnostics, pharmacy, lab and food services,” continued Ms. Hardenne.
The internal field hospital at OTMH was built in April 2020, but was not needed until its opening on December 1, 2020. It has been a critical resource to respond to local pressures and supports the ability to take patients from other hospitals in the healthcare system as directed by the GTA Hospital IMS.
“We have been using our Internal Field Hospital consistently since the beginning of December and although the space is not your typical inpatient unit, our staff and physicians have done an exceptional job of caring for our patients and ensuring they have a good experience. Each patient area is divided by a modular wall with a privacy curtain. These areas are furnished with a hospital bed, side table with storage, a reading lamp, visitor chair and over bed table,” explained Judy Linton, Senior Vice-President, Patient Experience & Chief Nursing Executive, Halton Healthcare.
