The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, recognized Thursday that there remains “a lot of improvements” to be made at the Lanaudière Hospital Center, where a 73-year-old woman died on August 12 in the emergency room, after waiting there for 17 hours without seeing a doctor.
It is in this same establishment, commonly called the Joliette hospital, that Joyce Echaquan died in September 2020 in a climate of disorganization and work overload in the emergency room, in particular.
“The problem is that best practices are not followed everywhere. In Joliette, that seems to be the case. [On] was there with [Mme] Echaquan a few years ago, and we still have issues,” declared Minister Dubé when intercepted in the corridors of the National Assembly.
The Montreal Journal reported Thursday a report from coroner André Cantin on the death of France Boisclair. The 73-year-old woman presented to the emergency room of the Lanaudière Hospital Center around 2:55 p.m. on Friday, August 11, 2023, due to loss of consciousness (syncope), dizziness and severe headaches. She died at 9:20 a.m. the next morning, after suffering a ruptured aneurysm in the emergency room.
France Boisclair was seen three times by nurses in triage, who in turn gave her a “code 4” priority. This code is assigned to people who do not need immediate care.
“Mme Boisclair was not seen by any doctor between 3:38 p.m. on August 11 and 8:20 a.m. on August 12, a period of 17 hours, while her blood pressure taken by a triage nurse at 3:38 p.m. was measured at 218 / 78, which is a very high level of blood pressure,” writes Mr. Cantin in his report dated January 27.
The CISSS de Lanaudière, to which the hospital falls, said it recognized “the seriousness of the situation”. “As soon as the event occurred, we carried out an analysis of it and implemented various measures to prevent such a situation from happening again,” said spokesperson Véronick Talbot. The CISSS notably said it would train more nurses in triage.
Minister Dubé concerned
In his report, the coroner emphasizes that it is “not within his mandate to examine the competence or conduct” of the people who provided care. “I cannot know whether the symptoms and signs presented by Mme Boisclair were well taken into consideration nor if we thought that they could be compatible with other conditions that could represent a danger to his health or his life,” he nevertheless notes. The coroner adds that he “questions” to understand whether the approach of the health professionals was “adequate, in particular with regard to the priority code established, the checks of the user’s condition and the time taken to take responsibility of the user.
“It concerns me a lot. I read the report skimmingly. It’s really a question of triage, where we say: “Did we make the right decision?” » noted for his part the Minister of Health.
Like the coroner, he highlighted the fact that the hospital has produced an “improvement plan”. In Joliette, “I think there are still a lot of improvements” to be made, however, underlined Mr. Dubé, after having reported persistent problems since the death of Ms.me Echaquan.
As a reminder, Joyce Echaquan had been placed in the Joliette emergency room under the care of a candidate for the practice of the nursing profession (CEPI) who had “a little less than four months of experience”, according to the report of coroner Géhane Kamel on his death. CEPI, who had not yet passed her nursing exam, was responsible for five patients; ten during his colleague’s dinner break. She had asked for help from an attendant, but she refused since she was alone to take care of 38 patients.