By Staff
January 3rd, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
Once again the folks at the Joseph Brant Hospital roll up their sleeves – take a deep breath and dig in.
Eric Vandewall along with everyone else on that front line have done this before and they will do it again. They face three weeks of a grind that has to be gone through. Keep them in your prayers.
A Message to the Community from Eric Vandewall,
Joseph Brant Hospital President & CEO
January 3, 2022
As we welcome 2022, hospitals are beginning the year in a very different position than we were anticipating just a few short weeks ago. The highly transmissible Omicron variant has spread rapidly through our community and across the world, leading to record-high case counts and unprecedented pressure on our health system.
Joseph Brant Hospital (JBH) has responded quickly to the evolving situation, reinstating emergency planning tables, evaluating and shifting strategies to meet the anticipated challenges ahead in this wave of the pandemic. We will work closely with our regional partners to continue to meet the demands for care within our communities.
The hospital isn’t under siege but it certainly feels like that to the staff that are able to get to work each day.
Omicron is presenting two crucial issues to healthcare: the significant number of people anticipated to need emergency and inpatient care, and the impact to the already existing shortage of health care professionals to provide patient care.
Our hospital, like many across Ontario, is experiencing significant pressures on hospital occupancy and staffing:
• The community transmission of Omicron has impacted our teams: 166 hospital workers are in isolation with COVID-19 symptoms (Jan. 3) and an additional 72 staff are in isolation pending test results. On average, we are seeing 50-70 new workers entering isolation daily.
• Seasonal illnesses are circulating, contributing to an increase in staff sick calls.
• Prior to Omicron, the hospital was already operating with a 9.4% staff shortage.
• There is a 30% increase in the number of people coming to our Emergency Department (ED) for care as compared to December 2020.
• There is an increased number of patients being admitted with complex medical issues.
• There is an increase in patients who are COVID-19 positive. Currently 11 inpatients are being treated for COVID-19, with 4 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
• There are current 1,121 active COVID-19 cases in Burlington (as of Dec. 31, 2021), with a test positivity rate of 9.3% (as of Dec. 22, 2021)
In response to these challenges, our hospital has enacted measures to ensure that we can continue to provide safe, quality care to our community:
Eric Vandewall, Joseph Brant Hospital President & CEO
• A ramp down of procedural and scheduled surgical care beginning today, January 3, as directed by Ontario Health. This will allow us to redeploy the health human resources in units that need the additional staffing support. We will continue to provide urgent and emergent surgeries, including cancer surgeries.
• Alternative models of staffing care have been implemented cross the organization, to support care delivery during staffing shortages.
• Following the new provincial testing guidelines for healthcare workers, with the timely return to work of asymptomatic staff who have had a COVID-19 exposure. These staff complete daily negative rapid antigen tests (RAT), ensuring work self-isolation and self-isolation at home.
• Continued prioritization of PCR testing for staff and physicians to enable their return to work as quickly and safely as possible, with additional enhancements to the testing process underway.
In addition to these measures, to support our increased Emergency Department volumes and acuity, we are asking for our community’s assistance to ensure those who need our emergency care, can receive it immediately.
• If you have mild COVID-19 symptoms, you do not need to come to the ED. Coming to the ED risks exposing vulnerable people to the virus. Please call your primary care provider or TeleHealth Ontario for advice on managing mild COVID-19 symptoms at home.
• If you are eligible under new provincial testing guidelines, you may book your COVID-19 test at halton.ca. Our ED cannot administer COVID-19 tests upon request.
• If you visit the ED, you will be seen based on the severity of your illness. Patients are seen based on an assessment of individual illness including many community members who arrive by ambulance. As a result of high volumes, this will likely mean longer than normal waiting times for less severe illness.
Our Emergency Department is safe and our nurses and doctors are ready to care for patients for need our help. If you need emergency care, do not hesitate to call 911 or visit your nearest Emergency Department.
These last two years have been incredibly difficult for everyone. The road behind us has been a long one and we are all anxious to the return to our pre-pandemic lives. However, now more than ever, please continue to follow the guidance of medical experts and public health officials. Get vaccinated, as doing so keeps you and your loved ones safe, and brings us one step closer to making our communities safer. Continue to protect yourselves and others by masking, washing your hands, maintaining physical distancing, and limiting the number of people with whom you gather.
As Wave 5 evolves, so will the situation within our hospital. Our teams will continue to provide great care to those who need it most. We echo our community’s gratitude for the sacrifices made by Joseph Brant Hospital’s dedicated staff and physicians.
We thank you for your patience, understanding and continued support.
Our best wishes for a safe and Happy New Year.
The donkey told the tiger, “The grass is blue.”
The tiger replied, “No, the grass is green .”
The discussion became heated, and the two decided to submit the issue to arbitration, so they approached the lion.
As they approached the lion on his throne, the donkey started screaming: ′′Your Highness, isn’t it true that the grass is blue?”
The lion replied: “If you believe it is true, the grass is blue.”
The donkey rushed forward and continued: ′′The tiger disagrees with me, contradicts me and annoys me. Please punish him.”
The king then declared: ′′The tiger will be punished with 3 days of silence.”
The donkey jumped with joy and went on his way, content and repeating ′′The grass is blue, the grass is blue…”
The tiger asked the lion, “Your Majesty, why have you punished me, after all, the grass is green?”
The lion replied, ′′You’ve known and seen the grass is green.”
The tiger asked, ′′So why do you punish me?”
The lion replied, “That has nothing to do with the question of whether the grass is blue or green. The punishment is because it is degrading for a brave, intelligent creature like you to waste time arguing with an ass, and on top of that, you came and bothered me with that question just to validate something you already knew was true!”
The biggest waste of time is arguing with the fool and fanatic who doesn’t care about truth or reality, but only the victory of his beliefs and illusions. Never waste time on discussions that make no sense. There are people who, for all the evidence presented to them, do not have the ability to understand. Others who are blinded by ego, hatred and resentment, and the only thing that they want is to be right even if they aren’t.
When IGNORANCE SCREAMS, intelligence moves on.
Sure wish they could open that covid tent now. Hoping the staff and patients on 6S200 are doing ok. The staff there are some of the best in healthcare.
Bob, did you not put out all this nonsense last year.
You were obviously not paying attention to what Mr Vandewall said back then, or just chose to ignore what he said. He very clearly set out how and under what circumstances the temporary building would be used. I suggest you go back and review it.
He also explained that staffing issues could not simply be addressed by moving a nurse say from a general ward to an ICU ward. Very different capabilities and training needed. Do you not think it has not occurred to Mr Vandewall and his equivalents at other hospitals to reallocate where possible both staffing and equipment resources?
“If Mr Vandewall did not see this coming it is a sad reflection on his management”. What a silly thing to say, Bob. That just blows away any credibility you might have had. Name one person in this entire world that foresaw the on-coming of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus and its ability to spread at a rate three times that of the Delta variant. You are obviously endowed with such foresight. Perhaps you can tell us when & where the 5th wave will erupt and how that variant will compare to previous ones. All governments, healthcare bodies, scientists, doctors react. None can prophiscy the future of this pandemic
Oh, and Bob I did not say management or bad management should not ever be criticized. I said only those competent to criticise should criticise. You, Bob are certainly not qualified. You are a Monday morning quarterback standing at the watercolor spouting off (pun intended) as if you were an expert.Bob, did you not put out all this nonsense last year.
You were obviously not paying attention to what Mr Vandewall said back then, or just chose to ignore what he said. He very clearly set out how and under what circumstances the temporary building would be used. I suggest you go back and review it.
He also explained that staffing issues could not simply be addressed by moving a nurse say from a general ward to an ICU ward. Very different capabilities and training needed. Do you not think it has not occurred to Mr Vandewall and his equivalents at other hospitals to reallocate where possible both staffing and equipment resources?
“If Mr Vandewall did not see this coming it is a sad reflection on his management”. What a silly thing to say, Bob. That just blows away any credibility you might have had. Name one person in this entire world that foresaw the on-coming of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus and its ability to spread at a rate three times that of the Delta variant. You are obviously endowed with such foresight. Perhaps you can tell us when & where the 5th wave will erupt and how that variant will compare to previous ones. All governments, healthcare bodies, scientists, doctors react. None can prophiscy the future of this pandemic
Oh, and Bob I did not say management or bad management should not ever be criticized. I said only those competent to criticise should criticise. You, Bob are certainly not qualified. You are a Monday morning quarterback standing at the watercolor spouting off (pun intended) as if you were an expert. You are not qualified ! If you think you are qualified, please state your qualifications and I will defer to you and apologize for calling you out.
Why do you call it nonsense? When I asked Mr Vandewall a year ago legitimate questions he never did answer them. When he posted his explanation of the Covid hospital and it’s use, he said he didn’t ask for it, it was put there by the LHIN. I posted a link to a quote from him on the CBC where he said he lobbied for the field hospital. Call it what you wish, but I call it disingenuous. When he complained the hospital was running at over 90% capacity, I asked what is the normal operating capacity of he hospital. Hardly nonsense because if an institution of that size isn’t operating at 90% efficiency it would be poor management. To complain about your institution operating efficiently was and is unnecessary.
I don’t even watch football so hardly a Monday Morning Quarterback. I am someone who doesn’t blindly follow a one sided conversation. I ask questions and make up my own mind based on all facts, not just one persons. If we were to believe the science as we keep being told, we would be living on a flat earth and using leeches and bloodletting. Science is all about questioning the science. And experts aren’t always experts unless challenged. Just ask the parents who had Dr Smith testify against them for abusing their children.
So back to the issue at hand, I asked how Mr Vandewall figured he could staff the Covid wing a year ago and not now? If he couldn’t move staff from one unit to another a year ago, what training programs did the CEO implement? These are questions I ask of the CEO, not some random name caller on the internet who objects to anything that doesn’t fit their narrative.
“You, Bob are certainly not qualified. You are a Monday morning quarterback standing at the watercolor spouting off (pun intended) as if you were an expert. You are not qualified ! If you think you are qualified, please state your qualifications and I will defer to you and apologize for calling you out.” I never once said I was either qualified nor an expert. If I were, I would know the answers instead of asking the questions. What I am, is a tax payer of this public institution and thus a shareholder and perfectly qualified to ask questions of publicly funded institutions and their managers. As for needing to be qualified to ask questions of management, I believe the same would go for defending it no? You have no idea of what size corporation I do manage, nor do I of you.
My point of the CEO (remember, the buck stops with him) not foreseeing possible outcomes of letting staff go that were unvaccinated and now complaining of staff shortages. That falls on him and his management. He lobbying for the field hospital that has never been used for its intended purpose, again, that is on the CEO. Not training staff in how to deal with an expected 5th wave of Covid-19? as the head of our hospital I am confident that he has the data from the Science Table, if not he could have picked up a newspaper, read Facebook or listened to the radio. However he gets his news, the Omicrom varient had overtaken Africa a month before Christmas and was already taking over in England, so yes I do would expect the management of our hospital to have contingencies and training in place after 21 months of the pandemic. Whether or not it was Omicrom, the Science Table had anticipated another wave with the holidays and being indoors again in winter, even if Omicrom hadn’t of mutated the 5th wave was coming.
What I have asked both in the past and now is when the CEO of our hospital complains on here of being close to capacity; What is the normal operating capacity? That’s not a hard question to answer unless there is some reason to not want the general public to know this.
I ask, if the staff from the units being closed to non essential surgery cannot be utilized in the Covid-19 field hospital, why build it? Plus if you wish to blindly believe everything told to you about staff not being able to work elsewhere, then why are we closing the surgery units? What happens to the staff?
These are questions that when I was young that newspapers asked in their original story, The readers of the newspaper didn’t need to follow up.
Bob, there’s this thingy on the internet thingy where you are able to ask questions and get access to a bunch of responses. The thingy is called Google. Anyway, I tried it and put in “joseph brant hospital field hospital” and got these responses.
https://www.josephbranthospital.ca/en/quality-and-performance/pandemic-response-unit.asp
https://www.josephbranthospital.ca/en/News/index.aspx?newsId=c8c47de6-5cc6-4dda-a662-ebbd3de94efc
excerpt
“The Pandemic Response Unit was built to care for COVID-19 patients whose condition has stabilized but require support that cannot be provided at home, such as oxygen therapy and medication, as well as ongoing monitoring of their symptoms and some personal support.
Transitioning these individuals to the PRU allows them to complete their recovery in an inpatient unit that is specifically designed to provide the type of care they need.
The healthcare teams working in the PRU comprise of physicians, nurses, patient care assistants, respiratory therapists, physiotherapists, home and community care coordinators, and many others.
The PRU is a key component of a regional strategy developed by HNHBB hospitals to meet the rising demand for COVID-19 care during Wave 2, while helping to minimize potential disruptions to scheduled and community care. The strategy is being led by the HNHBB Hospital Incident Management Structure (IMS) team, which includes representation from all regional hospitals, including CEOs and clinical leadership.
Under the plan, the PRU serves as a regional resource that can receive patients from four hospitals that are providing acute COVID-19 care: Joseph Brant Hospital, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, Hamilton Health Sciences (Hamilton General Hospital) and Niagara Health. Any transfers will be determined based on care needs and in consultation with patients and their families.”
So, Bob, the facility is a Regional resource. Patient transfers to the PRU are determined by the HNHBB Hospital Incident Management Structure (IMS) team, which includes representation from all regional hospitals, including CEOs and clinical leadership.
Staffing of the PRU is determined & provided by the IMS, not by JBH. But on the ground management of the PRU is provided by JBH.
The PRU can be viewed as an overflow facility for the four hospitals in the region for their non-critical COVID patients that still require hospital resources. Staffing allocated by the IMS. Local management by JBH.
The PRU is not a JBH initiative or facility.
So the buck does not stop with Vandewall. It stops at the IMS.
Omicron was first detected at the end of November 2021. The first 2 cases of Omicron were detected in Canada within 2 weeks of the South Africa outbreak. Nobody in South Africa, Canada, the CDC, WHO anywhere had any idea what was being faced. So just what training or other preparations would you now in hindsight (MMQ) have advocated. Prior to the advent of Omicron the first world countries were watching infection numbers consistenly falling and the thought was the worst was passed and we can all begin to get back towards “normal”. So people were ramping down not up!
If you were being serious in saying you don’t watch football so you cannot be a Monday morning quarterback, you are sweet. A Monday morning quarterback is defined as “One who criticizes or passes judgment from a position of hindsight. A person who, after the event, offers advice or criticism concerning decisions made by others; one who second-guesses.”
Your questions whether valid or not should be directed to the IMS not to JBH (Vandewall).
Oh yeah and ow there is an outbreak at JBH. 6th floor 200 section – 20 critical care beds closed, and staff isolating for 5 days.
https://burlingtongazette.ca/covid19-outbreak-at-joseph-brant-hospital/
Mary, I used that internet thingy as you said and did ask questions. I asked them right here and Mr Vandewall chooses to ignore them as always and has an amateur media spokesperson answer for him.
Lets start with this one from March 31 in the Globe and Mail
“The 93-bed unit, which is being built on hospital grounds and connected to the South Tower, is in response to an anticipated surge of COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks.”
“Based on the best information we have available, on the modelling and forecasting as to when the surge would be at its peak, the information we have would be between seven and 14-plus days,” said Eric Vandewall, president and CEO of Joseph Brant.
“We decided a few weeks ago, based on this information, that we needed to have this additional capacity to respond to the surge as best as we could.”
== Mary, I would like to ask you where in there is say’s anything about the IMS? Mr Vandewall wanted to take credit for the PRU when it was constructed and so it is Mr Vandewall I will direct my questions to.==
Dr. Ian Preyra, the hospital’s chief of staff, said patients who test positive for COVID-19 will be monitored by a team of doctors who have volunteered from across Burlington.
“It will allow the hospital to cohort these patients together to have standardized care, and also free up necessary critical care capacity within the hospital building so that we can expand our ability to provide critical care to the sickest patients,” said Preyra.
He added that keeping COVID-19 patients in a separate unit will also reduce the risk of the virus spreading
https://globalnews.ca/news/6758358/pandemic-response-unit-joseph-brant-hospital-coronavirus/
== So Mary, why now would the PRU not be utilized with the staff that volunteered last year and why is it now safe to keep the patients in the general hospital? I really shouldn’t be asking you, I’m just pointing out to you why I ask these questions of the CEO. I don’t go into my questions blindly, I use that internet thingy too. The good thing about it is that once someone say’s something it is there in the archives so when someone tries to change the narrative, the original exists. ===
You are right, you should not be asking me. And you are wrong to keep bleeding about Mr Vandewall not answering at all or not answering to your satisfaction tion.
It seems the issue both at JBH and every other medical facility in the Province is availability of for purpose trained staff. Staffing levels are down due to illness and fatigue.
Go ask all your questions of the IMS and report back.
My questions always were originally to Mr Vandewall, it was you who got righteous and interjected. And as I have pointed out in my questions and quotes, it was Mr Vandewall being quoted and it is he I will ask the questions. If he believes it is the IMS responsibility, he never should have said how he had lobbied for the PRU, nor should he have said it was going to be used so the rest of the hospital could stay open. Those were Eric Vandewall said that, NOT the IMS. There is no rational reason the hospital has shit down it’s Covid-19 testing center, there is no reason the white elephant is not being reopened so more of our vulnerable population can receive their vaccines. If the responsibility for those decisions were made elsewhere then HE should be telling the population he serves that instead of continually spewing doom and gloom. He has posted in this news source in a few occasions saying the hospital was nearing capacity and not once did his doom and gloom come true.
Since we like to quote sources, how about re-reading Chicken Little.
The time for Doom and Gloom is over as the purveyors of it are losing their audience quickly.
Steve W, and all lay medical management “experts”, aka armchair quarterbacks !!
We’ve been through this discussion before during previous waves of this pandemic. Please refrain from expressing your opinion as to the management of our hospital’s resources, human or physical, when you lack the qualifications, expertise or experience in hospital management.
Mr. Vandewall has in his previous communiques, which were published here in the past, addressed the use of the temporary structure. Perhaps the Gazette will republish those communiques.
Please leave the management of the hospital to the management of the hospital
Hey … Mary Hill get off your high horse. I was only making a suggestion. Must be a little oxygen less up there, because as far as I know in a democracy we’re entitled to offer our opinion. So Please refrain from being dictatorial. As the layman it seems silly to have a several million dollar tent set up for covid care when the hospital is filling up. Granted staffing is an issue and will get a lot worse. However in a short while, those 100 odd beds in the tent are going to need to be deployed. BTW … I used to work at the hospital as well as my wife for 30 plus years. Eric can do no wrong in the press but people that worked there know different.
Hey, Steve W.
Dictators do not ask or say please when asking, as I did.
Thank you to you and your wife for your service time at the hospital.
Just because someone works on the production line at Ford does not qualify them to manage the entire plant or provide them with the knowledge of influences outside and inside the plant which must be considered when making management decisions. Certainly they will have valuable knowledge and advice to provide to management in relation to their specific area of operations. But are most unlikely to be aware of all of the factors that must be considered by management when making a management decision.
You say those 100 or so beds in the temporary structure will soon need to be deployed. Maybe they will be needed. How would you manage deploying them if you lack the human resources, doctors, nurses, orderlies needed to service the patients in those beds. Maybe you have a magic wand that Bob talks about. Please let us know how you would do it.
Bob, I believe is a layperson when it comes to hospital management. Yet he refuses to listen to or accept what Vandewall as a qualified manager has said in the past as to how and when the temporary structure might be deployed. Bob is a “barrack-room lawyer” in this instance. You may well be too. Your answer as to the deployment of those 100 beds will be telling.
Oh I see because you say please in a condescending tone it makes it ok. Sure.
I have no idea how to staff the covid tent. My point was that Eric allocated a couple of million dollars to provide extra beds that would be available in the event we had a surge like this. I am hoping that contingencies were factored in for reduced staffing, when he went before the board to justify its construction. Otherwise it was just a publicity stunt. Albeit a successful one as it got picked up nationally.
The fact you are so vehemently defending the hospital administration and Eric leads me to believe you are part of his cheering squad. Sorry I’m not. Lets hope the omicron variant burns out, before people are forced to be housed on gurneys in the voluminous wasted spaces of the hospital corridors in the new south tower.
Steve, I was not being dictatorial or condescending. I’m sorry you took it that way. I was sincerely asking, pleading with those who are not qualified to refrain from passing judgment. In your use of the same word “please” when you said “So Please refrain from being dictatorial” were you saying that in a pleading way or were you being demanding. You see your words, without there being qualifiers to them, are left by the writer to be possibly misinterpreted. Maybe I should have written “Mary asked and pleaded with readers ‘Please refrain from expressing your opinion……’”. I assure you no condescension was intended.
You seem to have a problem understanding what I write. I asked, you said in a dictatorial way, that those not qualified in hospital management not pass opinion on Vandewall’s management of JBH. But you write of me “The fact you are so vehemently defending the hospital administration and Eric leads me to believe you are part of his cheering squad”. I am not qualified to judge Vandewall’s performance. I have not expressed an opinion on Vandewall’s performance. I will not express an opinion on his performance. I have at no time defended Vandewall’s performance and I am certainly not part of his “cheering squad”, as you put it. If you disagree please point out if you can where I have endorsed or supported Vandewall or his performance. I am not endorsing Vandewall’s performance nor am I decrying it. I am not qualified to judge. Got it now?
Recently CNN ran an article that asked readers to submit their nominations for words or phrases that are over used or nonsensical. I along with a few others nominated “unprecedented”. It has been used in connection with this pandemic. Certainly over used but also inaccurate remembering a pandemic back in 1918. Also nominated was “time is running out fast. So often used in association with an upcoming deadline. Certainly over used but also nonsensical because time runs out at the same pace no matter how close one gets to a deadline.
High on the list of nominations was “shots in arms” meaning vaccinations or inoculations. Why not just say vaccinations or inoculations?
I say all this, whilst I know it has nothing to do with the article’s subject matter, I noticed the writer had used the phrase “a few short weeks ago”. What does that mean? Are not all weeks of a seven day duration?
Please would the Gazette please resolve to in 2022 to cut out over used words and meaningless phrases.
Thank you.
Wouldn’t now be the time to utilize that covid tent that was never used before?
sure, if you could staff it.
You. Hold staff it with the non-vaccinated who were let go Jan 1
Those same people who put their lives on the line a year ago and we banged our pots and pans for on Fridays. Hero’s to the scorn of the earth
You could also utilize the doctors and nurses who won’t be doing elective surgeries
Or how about all the nurses giving Covid shots at Gary Allen? Repurpose them and send the vaccines to family doctors and ALL drugstores instead of just the ones owned by conglomerates.
If Mr Vandewall did not see this coming it is a sad reflection on his management as we are now in our 5th wave of this virus and it isn’t the first time he has written an editorial complaining of the hospital being at capacity. The trouble was that just like Chicken Little, it wasn’t accurate. I asked him every time he posted for the accurate figures and he chose to not answer.
As for Mary Hill who doesn’t think anyone should criticize poor management, Mr Vandewall did NOT answer the questions regarding the white elephant beside Joseph Brant. If it never had the staff a year ago to operate, why build it? Did his magic wand he was going to use last year to magically find staff get lost?