COVID-19 classifications at Greater Victoria hospitals differ depending on where the cases are coming from, according to Island Health.
Victoria General Hospital (VGH) declared a COVID-19 outbreak on Oct. 3 after 11 patients tested positive, according to Island Health. By contrast, Dr. Jeff Unger, a physician at Saanich Peninsula Hospital (SPH), reported that 18 patients tested positive for COVID-19 at that hospital, but no outbreak was declared.
Out of the 11 COVID-19 cases at VGH, eight of the cases were active. The outbreak was declared on unit 6C and the COVID-19 patients were “experiencing mild illness,” according to medical health officer Dr. Mike Benusic.
RELATED: 11 COVID-19 cases at Victoria hospital unit declared an outbreak
Back on Aug. 31 at SPH when 28 per cent of beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients, the hospital refrained from declaring an outbreak although there were more COVID-19 cases than the Oct. 3 VGH outbreak.
At SPH, there’s a more vulnerable population to COVID-19 as 65 per cent of the admissions to the hospital were over the age of 75, according to Unger.
“Most had mild to moderate symptoms,” he told Black Press Media in a statement. “One very elderly patient died from COVID-19 that he acquired in the community.”
The fatality was unlike most of the COVID-19 patients at SPH because the patients “either were tested due to minor symptoms and found to be positive, or acquired COVID-19 while in hospital,” Unger said.
According to Island Health’s COVID-19: outbreak management protocol, for an outbreak to be classified as one it must abide by the “occurrence or suspicion of epidemiologically linked cases of confirmed health-care-associated COVID-19 within a 10-day period, an investigation that transmission most likely occurred within the same unit or facility rather than prior to admission or from community exposure, and the number of cases or the severity of illness is beyond what is normal or expected based on circulating virus.”
The measures taken by the hospital to address the COVID-19 cases are another way outbreaks can be classified along with the outbreak management protocol, according to Benusic.
“Would the measures that we put in place,” said Benusic, “would the benefits be expected to be higher than the risks that they would cause?”
This is the fourth year hospitals internationally have had to deal with COVID-19, hence the precautions put in place for recovering patients have changed drastically.
“I remember early on in COVID-19 outbreaks when we would have an outbreak in the long-term care home, it would often be the case where many people would get very sick, mostly residents, but occasionally even staff,” said Benusic. “Now it is quite rare actually when someone is to get COVID-19 that they would end up getting very sick. So we are managing COVID-19 differently than we did previously when COVID-19 would be more likely to cause severe disease.”
When taking measures to stop group activities, group dining and restricting visitors, Benusic said that “we really have to be careful we’re not actually putting measures in place that would have more of a harm on the residents than the benefit it would produce. There is definitely an art to outbreak management and I would say that we operate in a system where we manage each outbreak uniquely.”
When asked about each of the cases at VGH on Oct. 3 and SPH on Aug. 31, Island Health told Black Press Media in a statement that “the situations at the two sites are very different and cannot be directly compared. With respect to SPH, the majority of cases were determined to be community-acquired. Specific to this outbreak at VGH and consistent with provincial guidance, the medical health officer or their official designate determined that there was a need for additional control measures beyond individual case management, based on the factors of this unique situation.”