Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital (Image credit: CFJC Today/File photo).

By Aaron Schulze

Clearwater Recognition

Clearwater and Interior Health recognized for joint effort to address hospital staff shortage

Jan 31, 2024 | 11:25 AM

CLEARWATER, B.C. — The District of Clearwater and Interior Health (IH) are being recognized for their teamwork in improving health care in the community.

“Shifting Advocacy to Action: Co-Creating Care with Clearwater” was given the 2024 Leadership in Co-Creating Health with Communities award by Health Quality B.C.

The award from the provincial council comes after Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater experienced a challenging 2022. Health Quality B.C. says healthcare and social assistance job vacancies at the hospital were almost double than two years prior. Within a six-month period between April and September the hospital’s emergency department experienced nearly 60 closures.

Health Quality B.C. says IH’s leadership team for engaging with community partners to promote awareness of staffing challenges at the hospital. The goal was to co-create solutions for recruiting and retaining staff by addressing Clearwater’s housing shortage and reframing the staffing model for nurses at the hospital.

“Rural hospitals are used to thinking outside the box to get things done,” Trish Sullivan, emergency department nurse says. “By changing our registered nurse (RN) rotations dramatically – splitting the lines into emergency room-specific and ward-specific roles – we were able to hire non-ER trained RNs into ward positions. Most importantly, the ER and hospital could remain open as we trained ward nurses for ER roles.”

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Clearwater residents offered suites and rental units at fair market value for visiting nurses or physicians. In January 2023, IH rented a six-bedroom, fully furnished house for short-term accommodation for staff who come to work in Clearwater and may want to stay.

In the last year and half, Clearwater Mayor Merlin Blackwell says the hospital’s emergency department has only closed once.

“Staff, local managers and IH leaders worked together on a plan to keep our emergency department doors open,” Blackwell says. “It required everyone to be brave and to trust the plan would work. It also took buy-in from the community as there were going to be more closures while the plan was being implemented.”

Additionally, Clearwater now has 4.5 full-time equivalent doctors, just short of the five required.