Hospital surge beds added as pressure grows in Alberta's intensive care units

Alberta hospitals are squeezing in extra intensive care unit beds as respiratory virus cases balloon and ICUs fill up.

Alberta Health Services has added 17 adult surge beds since last week — 12 in Edmonton and 5 in Calgary— bringing the total to 240.

"We are seeing quite a bit of influenza coming to the ICU and not just in our frail elderly people. We're seeing that in 40 year olds, in 60 year olds. Some have an underlying bacterial pneumonia as well. And some just have influenza," said Dr. Shelley Duggan, an Edmonton-based critical care physician and president-elect of the Alberta Medical Association

"That's seemingly what's driving the ICU admissions over the past few weeks."

According to Alberta Health Services, as of Wednesday at 9 a.m., Alberta ICUs were treating 76 influenza patients, 37 people with COVID-19 and 11 with RSV, respiratory syncytial virus.

Duggan said the influenza patients she's seeing are very sick and are requiring longer stays in the intensive care unit.

"They have significant lung disease. We have to sedate them and ventilate them for several days and then we have to wean them," she said. "They can stay with us a long time."

As ICU surge beds are added, hospitals resort to double-bunking intensive care patients or use post-operative recovery rooms and cardiac intensive care units as overflow ICUs, according to Duggan.

The trouble is, urban hospitals were already overcapacity before the respiratory virus season hit and health care workers are in short supply.

"You can add beds. You can't necessarily staff them."

Dr. Ken Parhar said intensive care units are also dealing with fallout from the family physician shortage.

"A lot of this relates to the fact that many people don't have primary care physicians and can't get care perhaps as quickly as they need it," said Parhar, an intensive care physician in Calgary and section president with the Alberta Medical Association.

 "Things that might be preventable aren't prevented."

For example, he treats people in the ICU with complications from chronic conditions such as diabetes or hypertension.