The North East LHIN is trying to improve wait times and patient experience.
That’s why they’ve brought in Elaine Burr to help bring down the number of ALC’s in hospitals in the region. ALC stands for alternate level of care. It’s when a hospital patient is finished with their acute treatment, but are unable to return home. This causes problems by increasing wait times for patients and filling up hospital beds needed by others.
Burr says ALC days are a system-wide problem for all hospitals, but she says there are steps that can be taken to reduce them.
Burr adds a home-first philosophy will help get patients to where they need to be. According to the North East LHIN, Burr’s ALC avoidance system was put in place in the Central Toronto LHIN and the number of patients waiting for long-term care was cut in half.
Burr says this approach is going to be applied to the North East LHIN, but will take a few months before showing results.