Friday marked six months since the World Health Organization proclaimed COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic. One of the major concerns at the beginning of the outbreak was how to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed with patients.
Dr. Chris Tebbutt, vice-president of academic and medical at Barrie's Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH), says they were ready despite the constant changes in information on a daily, if not hourly, basis.
“We were fully prepared for the worst-case scenario based on provincial and local projections,” Tebbutt told BarrieToday. “To date, we have cared for 22 COVID-19-positive patients, either in our ICU (intensive care unit) or a dedicated area in our respiratory unit.
"Sadly, seven of those patients passed away, with the first of those being the first death in Ontario," the doctor added.
Like most hospitals around the world, RVH officials made sure staff members were equipped with all the proper personal protective equipment (PPE).
Tebbutt says employees were redeployed to other areas of the Georgian Drive facility as needed, and any surgical procedures were halted that could be.
“RVH kept several operating rooms running throughout the pandemic, so we continued to perform some procedures, including vital cancer and emergency surgeries,” Tebbutt said. “We are now at about 80 per cent of our surgical capacity, so things are definitely normalizing.”
The pandemic has changed how RVH operates day-to-day and while some services and departments are gradually reopening, some things may stay the way they are for a while.
RVH chief of staff Dr. Jeffrey Tyberg said there are several ways the local hospital has adapted.
“The pandemic required us to shift some outpatient visits to virtual instead of in-person," he told BarrieToday. "We will continue to see patients virtually when we know that we can provide care safely and effectively in this manner.
"We are limiting access into the building with designated entrances for patients, visitors, staff and physicians and will continue to do this for the foreseeable future," Tyberg added. "We’d like to be able to completely resume normal operations, including welcoming visitors back 24/7, but this is premature at this point.”
As cases started to decline, services and procedures were ramped up at RVH and at the Rizzardo Health and Wellness Centre in Innisfil. The drive-thru testing centre, known as 'Clinic C', surpassed 10,000 swabs since testing began in March.
Tyberg said RVH is “well prepared” should a second wave of the virus hit, with a detailed pandemic plan in place.
RVH has also shown over the last six months just how quickly they can adapt to fast-paced changes, he noted.
“We have the capacity to go from our existing 15 intensive care beds up to 105 if required, having converted and prepared areas within the health centre to accommodate this,” Tyberg said. “We have also built a 70-bed field hospital in the event we — or any of the hospitals in the region — require additional capacity.”
Tyberg said the regional pandemic response unit, or PRU, is a fully functioning, four-season field hospital located on the RVH campus and connected to the main building by a tunnel. He stressed the PRU is not a COVID unit and, if needed, its patients would generally be medically stable with an estimated discharge date of three to five days.
“Moving patients to the PRU would free up capacity within the building should the need arise,” Tyberg said.
Tyberg made it abundantly clear that RVH is not panicked by the potential for a second COVID wave: "As we’ve been saying all along, we’re prepared, not scared.”
