The Ontario government has always maintained that getting alternative level of care patients out of hospital is so much more cost-effective than having costly beds tied up with patients who have essentially finished their acute care treatment but are otherwise unable to go home.
The question is, cost-effective for whom?
This week a proposal to set up a 25-bed convalescent unit at a Sudbury retirement home fell through when Health Sciences North (formerly the Sudbury Hospital) learned that standards around convalescent care would actually apply to a convalescent unit. Imagine that?
By applying those standards, the convalescent unit would actually cost $1.4 million – money the hospital says it doesn’t have.
Northern Life says Dave McNeil, Health Sciences North’s vice-president of clinical services, told the newspaper that it was hoped the unit would cost between $300,000 and $800,000 a year to run, depending on the patient’s ability to contribute financially to their care.
In short, they were contemplating patients picking up as much as $500,000 of that tab for what would clearly be substandard care. Assuming the 25 beds were full 365 days a year, that would amount to a levy of about $55 a day. A two week stay would therefore cost about $770 without any extras.
On the other hand, if the patient were medically unable to be discharged from hospital, their care would be ordinarily covered under our Medicare system and guaranteed under the Canada Health Act.
OPSEU Diablogue 