An 86-year-old man with dementia went to a New Brunswick hospital for pneumonia but ended up with bruises and other injuries, his family says.
His family believes the injuries came from hospital falls and could have been prevented with more resources to support patients and staff as they wait for a nursing home placement.
“You’re going in, you’re seeing your father with a black eye, and all covered in bruises,” said Lisa Weir, whose father Winston Cossaboom is at Saint John Regional Hospital while waiting for a long-term care bed placement.
For more than three decades, Cossaboom served his community working with the Saint John Police Force. Now it’s his turn for care, and his family believes the health-care system is coming up short in fulfilling his needs.
“He’s gone into the hospital with pneumonia and now has more injuries from being in the hospital,” Weir said.
Cossaboom joined the wait-list in July for an in-home care assessment, which requires a social worker.
After getting pneumonia in October, and with his dementia worsening, Cossaboom was admitted to the Saint John Regional Hospital, where he remains today.
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A care home is now his only option, but six months after registering, the family still hasn’t seen the social worker to make that happen.
With Cossaboom now waiting in hospital, things are continuing to spiral.
Early one morning this month, Weir says her mother received a phone call they never expected from the hospital.
“We found your husband on the floor and we aren’t sure how long he had been there,” Weir recalled about what the hospital told her mother.
“They are doing the very best they can but let’s at least give them some equipment that would help,” she added.
Cossaboom is one of roughly 300 acute long-term care patients in a hospital run by Horizon Health Network who are waiting for a nursing home placement.
Horizon Health Network has spoken out against these conditions already this year.
In a statement, Greg Doiron, VP of clinical operations at Horizon Health, said they “understand the frustration families experience when loved ones required extended hospital stays while waiting for long-term care placement.”
“Hospitals are designed and resourced to provide acute care, and these patients deserve to be cared for in an environment that best meets their needs,” he wrote.
“Horizon continues to be challenged with nearly 40% of our acute care beds being occupied by patients waiting for placement in long term care facilities. Hospitals are not designed for that type of care. We are continuing to work with our health system partners to properly address this issue.”
Meanwhile, the New Brunswick Nursing Union says it, too, has long been calling for more staff to care for seniors stuck in hospitals playing the waiting game.
“It flags to me the systemic breakdown that we have to care for the elderly within an acute care sector when really they should be in a long-term care sector with the appropriate staffing levels and the equipment necessary,” union president Paula Doucet said.
Weir is calling for more staff and more equipment to keep patients safe in their hospital rooms and beds while they wait, something the province says is already underway.
“This past year, there’s been a net increase in over 400 combination of nurses and licensed practical nurses in our hospitals, almost 416,” New Brunswick Health Minister John Dornan said.
He adds that the province hopes to have an acute and long-term plan for patient releases in the coming weeks.
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