There is currently a problem with “bottlenecking” is London, says Denise Bedard, committee co-founder, with hospital bed space at a premium. Although in the past LTC beds were also often in high demand, the hospital bed shortage has reached the critical stage, prompting the Elgin Middlesex Oxford Transition of Care Committee to make finding new beds its short term aim.

The committee, which met Oct. 20th at Parkwood Hospital, noted that there are currently 2-3 beds per LTC home that are not always occupied.

The committee wants to create temporary “transitional” beds, where recovering patients will continue to receive care comparable to that of the hospital from long term care staff, with nurses administering medication and physiotherapists providing recovery support.

Potential candidates for the beds would be patients who have undergone procedures like hip and knee surgery and other forms of specialized care.

“This solution would free up badly needed beds, further reducing hospital stay costs, and wait times,” says Bedard.

The committee, which met first in June, is a diverse collection of hospital and long term care administrators, community agency management and frontline workers. Its goal is to improve the provision of health care in the London region by focusing on critical gap areas in service.

“Transitional” beds were one solution identified under the priority category labeled “Shortage of Beds.” The other categories are Lack of funding, Mental Health Challenges, Lack of Specialized Services, and Lack of Education.

Bedard explains that support is high for the committee – of the 70 participants at the last meeting, 75 percent have pledged a commitment to continue – and its next step is to conduct a comparative analysis of research and literature around its five identified priority areas.

“We’ll look at – ‘this is what’s been done in the past and how can we go forward?’” says Bedard.

“People want to be part of the solution. Identifying gaps is one thing, but how do we go about creating the solutions?”

The committee will likely focus next on another top priority area – mental health challenges in long term care homes.

“This one is tough,” says Bedard. The committee has considered making recommendations such as the use of Developmental Service Workers in LTC homes to help serve long term care’s expanding demographic.

The committee is working towards eventually delivering a report to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care containing a business model and best practices for addressing recurring challenges.

Requests for short term funding to address the gaps has also been considered, says Bedard.