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Office 365 Login- COVID-19 Staff FAQ
Additional visitor precautions now in place at WPSHC
In order to protect our patients and the continued delivery of safe and sustainable care, revised visitation requirements are now in place for West Parry Sound Health Centre. All of these additional precautions align with similar safety measures being taken at most acute care hospitals throughout Ontario.
Everyone at West Parry Sound Health Centre is very thankful for our community’s ongoing support and cooperation. We are taking these additional precautions to protect the health and safety of our patients, essential visitors, staff, and physicians.
Please see the information below.
Transitional Care Unit and Rehabilitation
• Two people can be placed on a patient’s approved essential visitor list.
• One visitor is allowed per day for a visit no longer than one hour.
• A negative Rapid Antigen Test (provided through Lakeland Long Term Care) is required within no greater than 24 hours prior to the visit.
Acute Care and Intensive Care Unit
An essential visitor will only be allowed for a patient whose expected length-of-stay is greater than seven days.
For those patients eligible for a visitor:
• One person can be placed on the approved essential visitor list.
• One visit per day will be allowed.
• A negative Rapid Antigen Test (provided through Lakeland Long Term Care) is required within no greater than 24 hours prior to the visit.
Obstetrical Unit
No change to current practice. You must check with your care team to ensure that all required precautions are being taken.
Palliative Care
No change to current practice. You must check with your care team to ensure that all required precautions are being taken.
Visiting appointments are required and must be made by contacting a West Parry Sound Health Centre Pandemic Support Worker. They can also provide additional information about visiting and safety requirements - 705-938-4719.
Protecting care for the communities we are privileged to serve
West Parry Sound Health Centre believes and supports the globally accepted science endorsing COVID-19 vaccination as the most important tool in protecting ourselves, each other, and our vulnerable health delivery systems, including hospitals and long term homes.
Our mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy prioritizes safety.
The policy is as clear as we can be in encouraging all team members to join us in following the science – vaccination is the best tool in stopping the spread of COVID-19. Full vaccination protects our patients, essential visitors, ourselves, our colleagues, physicians, and, ultimately, it protects our shared responsibility to provide safe, sustainable care to the people who require our services.
The health centre’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement is part of an operational policy.
This policy is the responsibility of my office.
I have taken this step with input and support from staff and medical leadership. West Parry Sound Health Centre is aligned with the majority of acute care hospitals in the province. As noted in a statement recently provided by the Ontario Hospital Association:
There’s a strong consensus among Ontario’s hospitals for a provincial policy requiring health care workers to be fully vaccinated. In mid-October, 120 of 141 hospitals from all parts of the province, totaling 94 percent of sector revenue and employing 166,000 staff, endorsed the position submitted by the Ontario Hospital Association on mandatory health care worker vaccination.
It has been our shared experience from the beginning of the pandemic, that our policies and practices must be adaptable to changing conditions. We continue to be very thankful to everyone who has moved with us in following the science and best practice regarding the benefits of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Please continue to join us by taking all recommended COVID-19 precautions. Together, we are protecting ourselves, our families, our friends and neighbours - everyone in the communities my organization is privileged to serve.
Donald Sanderson, CEO West Parry Sound Health Centre and Lakeland Long Term Care
 Ontario Hospital Assoc. statement |
Visitor vaccination policy in place November 15
To patient family and friends,
West Parry Sound Health Centre’s Occupational Health and Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) teams are sharing this information to describe changes to our immunization and visitor policies.
Below you will find highlights of the requirements for visiting family/friends or being a support person at WPSHC.
• Effective 15 November 2021 – All visitors and support persons will be required to demonstrate proof of complete vaccination to enter. This requires a second vaccine administered 14 days prior to entry. Proof can be in the form of a vaccine receipt, vaccine certificate, or QR code.
• Exemptions from this policy may be approved if the patient is a child, palliative/end-of-life, in labour, or experiencing life altering/critical illness. Exceptions MUST be approved by the Director of Nursing/IPAC, or Chief Nursing Officer, or Chief of Medical Staff.
• We recognize the importance and value of connection with family and friends for the patients we serve. Thus, after 15 November 2021 visitors who are not fully vaccinated will be supported in connecting with a patient via alternative means such as virtual visits or telephone calls.
• All family/friend visitors must continue to be scheduled with the Pandemic Support Team (705) 938-4719 in accordance with the visitor policy. An updated visitation policy will be available in printed copy at our main entrance or sent electronically by request.
• Please note that our updated vaccination policy does NOT include those seeking/receiving medical attention in the Emergency Department, as an admitted patient, or attending a medical appointment within the building.
We thank you for your ongoing support, understanding, and compliance. Please stay safe.
Sincerely, on behalf of the WPSHC Pandemic Response Leadership Team
Katie Hogue, Covid Response Co-lead
Carrie Hughes, Team Lead Screeners & Pandemic Support
| Additional visitor information |
Be safe, tread lightly, and avoid risk
Never delay in calling 911 or safely traveling to our Emergency Department when you have an urgent need for care.
In our second summer of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff and physicians continue to take additional precautions inside WPSHC. All of these actions are necessary to maintain safety for patients, essential visitors, staff, and physicians. These actions include: screening upon entry and prior to triage, the strict limitation of visitors accompanying patients, all patients (and visitors who qualify as ‘essential’) must wear a mask at all times. Heightened routine precautions remain in place, including the frequent use of additional personal protective equipment: masks and eye protection, gowns and gloves.
It takes longer to safely provide care while taking all of these additional precautions.
Our patients may experience longer wait times and people coming to our Emergency Department are advised that we do not have vending machines available. Visitors should consider bringing water with them. Patients should always check with nursing staff before consuming anything.
We are strongly encouraging everyone to schedule their COVID-19 vaccination appointments, and: Make Safety a Summer Priority, Plan and Prepare to Avoid an Unnecessary Trip to our ER, Tread Lightly on All Public Services, and Always Avoid Unnecessary Risk.
Please remember: never delay in calling 911 or safely traveling to our Emergency Department when you have an urgent need for care.
Find our summer reminders here.
| stay safe, avoid unnecessary trip to ER |
Provincial Order protects system capacity
On April 20 the Ministry of Health announced the provincial expectation (known as Directive #2) that all non-emergent and non-urgent surgeries and procedures be stopped.
Urgent and emergency surgeries and procedures will continue.
What does this mean for WPSHC patients?
• Anyone in the community who has an appointment scheduled for any procedure, program, or service may be contacted by someone from the health centre or a clinical office in advance of their scheduled appointment. If contact has not been made, patients should call their existing contact for more information about their scheduled procedure, program, or service.
Exceptions to this include currently scheduled services in Ambulatory Care, Out-patient Rehabilitation, and Medical Imaging.
Please see the information included here.
• Urgent appointments in Ambulatory Care will continue as scheduled. These include, but are not limited to: chemotherapy, specialist clinics, and nursing care. All Ambulatory Care referrals must be from a local primary care provider.
• Our Out-patient Rehabilitation Department and Medical Imaging (x-ray, ultrasound, mammography, CT) will continue to provide services in accordance with already established COVID-19 protocols and there are no changes to patient programming at this time. Should organizational demands or provincial directions no longer support this practice, we will contact patients directly to provide revised information.
Referral from a primary health care provider is required for out-patient services and procedures in these departments.
• All out-patient services and procedures will be triaged with priority for urgent and emergency referrals.
• At WPSHC, important care decisions will continue to be based on individual care plans in consultation with medical and clinical care teams.
| Ramping down services |