Posted: Dec 23, 2020 6:00 AM AT | Last Updated: December 23, 2020
The Nova Scotia Health Authority is still trying to figure out why Cape Breton in-hospital deaths are higher than anywhere else in Canada.(Tom Ayers/CBC)
The hospital death ratio in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is alarming opposition MLAs who feel the province is failing to act.
For the third straight year, hospitals in and around Sydney, N.S., recorded the highest death rate in the country, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
According to CIHI, nearly 50 per cent more patients in CBRM died than expected compared to the national average.
Smallpox deaths (blue) in London, England, 1664–1930, and the long-term trend of weekly births (red). (Credit: Olga Krylova and David J.D. Earn)
CN) Smallpox, responsible for the deaths of millions over three millennia, was declared eradicated 40 years ago. As Covid-19 continues to plague the world, scientists on Monday revealed new insights into smallpox and how lessons learned from it helped guide modern medicine to a vaccine for the latest virus.
In a study published in the journal PLOS Biology, researchers Olga Krylova of the Canadian Institute for Health Information and David Earn of McMaster University in Canada, looked at historical records of smallpox outbreaks in London and how they relate to Covid-19.
Posted: Dec 21, 2020 6:00 AM AT | Last Updated: December 21, 2020
Dr. Paul MacDonald says it s concerning that Cape Breton Regional Municipality hospitals have the worst death rate in the country, but even more so since they ve held that spot for three years.(Tom Ayers/CBC)
For the third straight year, hospitals in and around Sydney, N.S., have recorded the highest death rate in the country, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
CIHI, described on its website as an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides essential information on Canada s health system and the health of Canadians, annually publishes its hospital standardized mortality ratio and other measures on the safety and effectiveness of in-hospital health care.
The publicly funded care home Louis Brier Home and Hospital, which has more than 200 residents and 400 staff, is located in the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. Researchers say it implemented the most provincial guidelines to prevent or mitigate virus spread, and had good crisis management, according to the report. “The facility leaders were monitoring COVID news as early as December,” said Havaei, a UBC nursing professor, who studies workplace safety and patient care. By March, when the B.C. government declared an emergency because of the virus, the care home had already implemented many of the infection control practices that would become standard practice in the pandemic, such as keeping an up-to-date list of people entering the home.