Nursing Homes Accept Healthier Patients
Nursing homes in Ontario select healthier patients over those who require more care, according to an expert in Ontario. This leads to backlogs in hospitals while patients with high needs wait for a nursing home that will accept them.
According to Healthzone, Dr. David Walker commented on the plight of an elderly woman who was threatened with a bill of $1,300 a day if she refused to vacate her bed at Toronto East General. The 84 year old patient suffered a stroke two months before and now requires a feeding tube to eat, but there are a limited number of nursing homes with the ability to care for her.
“If she were walking around the floor of Toronto East General, looking forward to being able to go to a nursing home where she would be able to feed herself and play cards, she would be gone in a flash,” Walker said.
“The incentive at the moment is that you fill up your nursing homes with the healthiest people and our health system ends up burdened with all sorts of people with high needs,” he added.
