This spring, Jeff Lozon received a crash course in how to cope with the outbreak of a potentially deadly illness.
Lozon is president and CEO at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital, which — along with all other hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area — received orders from the province Mar. 27 to restrict entry in response to the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
The restrictions, which included screening of all visitors and the temporary suspension of surgery, effectively closed down the busy hospital. “Everything in our system has changed,” Lozon said Apr. 15. He said all elements of daily operations, from admissions to food preparation to flower delivery, had to be evaluated. “We've basically been recreating processes from the ground up.”
Part of this recreation involved vigorous enforcement of new security rules among 5000 staff members: their access was limited to a single door, and staff from departments that had closed were reallocated to screening duty. The measures even extended to staff at a franchised coffee shop, and flowers being delivered for patients were turned away.
“For the first 10 days or so if you were up on the units at all, even if you were delivering meals, you would have to take full precautions,” Lozon explained. “Now we've backed away from that a bit and we're little more selective, but we haven't restored anything back to normal.”
By mid-April, with 34 people isolated as possible SARS patients and some staff members in quarantine, Lozon said the need for containment was far from over.
He thinks screening procedures will continue for months, and this possibility is causing financial concern. “This whole thing will lead to a permanent increase in costs,” Lozon said. “Over and above the extraordinary costs that are occurring now, there's going to be a permanent increase in costs for the administration of screening activities.
“This has all kinds of ramifications.” — Brad Mackay, Toronto