New wristbands to help identify waiting ER patients: health officials

There will be more changes to the intake procedures at Winnipeg hospital emergency rooms in the wake of the death last week of a 45-year-old man who had been waiting for treatment at the Health Sciences Centre.

Brian Sinclair, a double amputee with a speech problem, was found dead in his wheelchair on Sept. 21, afterhe spent34 hours in the waiting room of the emergency department.

His death could have been prevented if a blood infection, brought on by complications of a bladder infection and blocked catheter, had been treated sooner, the province's chief medical examiner said last week.

Sinclair appears never to have been assessed by a triage nurse and was not registered as a patient seeking care, so reassessment nurses didn't know he was there for help, officials with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said Tuesday.

Now, everyone who arrives at the hospital's emergency room will be greeted by a staff member at the door and issued a green wristband identifying them as someone who needs care but who has not yet been triaged, WRHA officials said Monday.

Once a patient has been triaged, the green wristband will be replaced with an HSC patient ID bracelet.

The hospital is also adding extra staff, described in a release as "skilled communicators with a background in social work and trained to deal with stressful situations" to regularly check on everyone in the waiting room.

The new staff will complement existing reassessment nurses who are tasked withre-evaluating patients who have been triaged. After Sinclair's death, hospital officials said they would also check on others in the waiting room, not just triaged patients.

"These are improvements in processes that will result in better patient care," Dr. Brian Postl, WRHA president and CEO, said in a release.

"These changes are designed to ensure patients are being monitored and that they know that someone is watching out for them."

Some of the changes may be expanded to other hospital emergency rooms after they have been evaluated at HSC, Postl said.