​Seniors and Hospitals: crisis or.....

​Seniors and Hospitals:  crisis or prophecy fulfilled?

The CEO of Horizon Health Authority correctly recently called attention to the problem created for hospitals by the pressure on emergency departments and acute hospital beds from patients who really require a different level of care.  In health care parlance, such patients are called ALC’s or Alternate Level of Care Patients.
This is not a new phenomenon!  ALCs were identified largely from the first days of the national hospital insurance system and the problem was documented in the late 1960’s in academic reports and studies by the provincial Ministers of Health.  That we have watched the situation grow without properly re-organizing the care processes simply is a reflection on a Health and Long Term Care system that changes like an ocean liner…..lots of sea, space and time! Read more here