Alberta Celebrates Four-Month Anniversary Of Plan To Prevent People Dying In ER Waiting Rooms
The Alberta government marked a significant milestone this week, celebrating four months since announcing an “immediate” plan to prevent patients from dying unattended in emergency room waiting areas.
The province had pledged that Triage Liaison Physicians would begin monitoring crowded waiting rooms on February 1, following the death of 44-year-old Prashant Sreekumar while waiting for care at Edmonton’s Grey Nuns Hospital.
Officials now say the program remains in the advanced planning phase, a critical stage that comes immediately after the announcement phase and shortly before the forgetting-about-it phase.
“We take patient safety very seriously,” said one government spokesperson. “That’s why we’re carefully studying whether having doctors in emergency rooms would actually improve emergency rooms.”
Emergency physicians expressed frustration with the delays, noting that surviving a visit to the ER should not be considered a quality benchmark.
At press time, Alberta Health had unveiled a new pilot project in which patients experiencing medical emergencies would be monitored by a laminated sign reading, “Please continue waiting. Your suffering has been acknowledged.”
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