Some patients who no longer require acute care are now occupying a hospital bed while they wait to be well enough to go home or to a long-term care or rehabilitation facility .

NL Health Services is developing a new pilot process for discharging such patients in need of an alternative level of care.

Cassie Chisolm, VP of Transformation at NL Health Services, says they’re talking about patients who are in hospital beds but are ready for different care in a different place. That might be a long-term care home or their own home.

Chisolm says it’s about doing things differently through a piece of software to streamline the system. She says at any given time, 15-21 per cent of their acute care beds are taken up by somebody who is ready for an alternative level of care. And that’s a Canada-wide issue, not just Newfoundland and Labrador.

“When you have your emergencies bursting at the seams, when people need access, it really goes against the grain when you have a person in a bed needed for acute care because the dots haven’t been connected on what’s needed for that person to get home,” she says.