Chatham-Kent Health Alliance preparing for ‘triple threat’ that now comes with flu season

The arrival of fall used to just bring a threat of influenza, but that isn’t the only virus for which Chatham-Kent Health Alliance has to be ready during the flu season, projected to last longer this year.

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Caen Suni, vice-president of clinical programs and operations, said the CKHA is preparing its hospital operations to manage “what we call the triple threat: RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), COVID-19 and influenza.”

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Provincial projections received by the CKHA suggest a 50 per cent increase in the flu season duration, he said.

“Those are early projections and they sometimes change, but that’s the data we’re working with right now,” Suni said.

To cope with a projected longer flu season, Suni said there is an internal campaign to ensure staff has access to vaccines.

He said the public also is encouraged to get vaccinated. Local physicians and the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit also recommend vaccination for COVID-19 and the flu.

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Suni recommends getting vaccinated now, during October “before the season officially hits.”

Suni said hospital officials are not seeing any early uptick in COVID-19 or influenza cases. However, he said during the last three years, regions around Chatham-Kent had increases in these viruses a few weeks before it was seen locally.

“We have currently seen some uptick in those areas and so we’re expecting it to come our way at some point,” he said.

Suni said how the community chooses to seek care also are factors in hospital’s ability to cope.

Hospital physicians “would probably say that there’s not much they can do for a cough in our emergency department,” he said.

The CKHA is working on providing alternatives where people with the flu can access care, he said. CKHA plans to provide details later in the fall to help people find care outside of the emergency department during flu season.

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While some hospitals in London, Windsor and Leamington have reinstated mask mandates in certain situations, the CKHA has not.

“At this stage, we’re reviewing this situation on a daily basis,” said Lori Marshall, CKHA president and CEO.

“What we’re doing at this point is actively monitoring not only what’s going on in the hospital, but also in our community and around our community,” she said.

Marshall said if and when more cases are seen in hospital, and staff become ill, then the CKHA will look at “ramping up masking similar to what we’ve done in the past.”

The CKHA also has an internal seasonal preparedness group getting ready for when viruses start hitting the area.

Suni said the CKHA has hosted an internal emergency management table with a few mock scenarios to make sure the hospital can maintain its capacity and “respond in the event we are seeing significant surges.”

The priority is to make sure CKHA can maintain its surgical program as well as maintain a flow of patients into long-term care homes and patients back to their own homes, he said.

The plan also includes treating more serious illnesses in children for longer at CKHA.

Suni said regional centers are often at capacity at this time and sometimes community-based hospitals are asked to hold on to child patients who may need a higher level of care a little longer.

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