The Answer: It can be daunting to search for a long-term care facility at the last minute when returning home is no longer possible for your father. You also face the sad reality that your parents, after being together for years, may not be able to live together any longer.

Though it seems like a nursing home is costly compared to the hospital, the monthly payment is only for the “living portion” – room and board – of the facility as the medical care is still funded by the provincial health plan. The fees for these homes – there are about 630 in Ontario – include among other things, meals, bed linens, having medication administered, and assistance with the essential activities of daily living. There are additional costs with cable television and hairdressing.

According to Donna Rubin, chief executive officer of the Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes and Services for Seniors, a spouse will not be forced out of their home to afford long term care.

“There is certainly no need to sell a house,” Ms. Rubin said in a telephone interview. “If you can’t afford it, the government steps in and provides the long term care home with a subsidy on your behalf, so there really is no need to sell the family home. In fact, if the spouse is still living in at home, a ‘special circumstances’ application may be made to reduce the resident accommodation charges even further.”

The fees for nursing homes are regulated, costing in Ontario per month $1,674.14 for a basic room: $1,947.89 for a semi-private room and $2,274.86 for a private room. The short-stay or temporary stay at a home costs $1,083.75 per month, according to 2012 figures from the health ministry, the latest available.

Retirement homes – where about 40,000 Ontario seniors reside – can also be an option, though their residents generally tend to be healthier. The cost of these homes ranges from $1,200 a month to $6,000 a month.

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Time for morning report again (see picture below). Hopefully, the on-call resident won’t get picked on and will get home to sleep!!!

An action packed day of teaching to say the least!!! Note the combination of teaching rounds with staff and patient care…seeing patients is the most important thing that residents do, and provides the best opportunity to learn. Thanks to all of our patients for helping to educate the next generation of Internal Medicine Specialists!!!

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Physiotherapy flash mob in C-wing.

If you’re a fan of 80’s music, you’ll remember Reel 2 Real’s smash, I Like To Move It. It’s the perfect soundtrack for a flash mob group whose philosophy boasts “Physiotherapy: It Will Move You.” It did. Some observers tapped along, while others tweeted or took pictures. Everyone noticed. In a world where there is literally a national “day” or “month” for everything, that’s exactly the point.

“We want people to see that we really live and breath what we’re trying to get people to do,” one physiotherapist told me between location changes. “Part of our job is to promote health, so we hope they take that away.” So however you like to move it, happy National Physiotherapy Month!

For more information, contact the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.

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Eighteen years ago, emergency physician Dr. Michael Schull met his future wife, radiologist Dr. Josee Sarrazin, while attending to a particularly horrific trauma patient. “I was a resident on the trauma team, and Josee was a radiology fellow,” recalls Dr. Schull. “It was a severe trauma and we needed a bedside ultrasound. She came in and I noticed her, and made a point of visiting radiology quite frequently after that!”

“The way he got me was by pronouncing my name correctly, “ Josee laughs. So he almost had her at bonjour!

I only had to ask around for a minute to find out there are many other couples within the 10,000 other employees here at Sunnybrook. And the situation is the same at hospitals across the country. Sex and relationship columnist Josey Vogels isn’t surprised. “Comments from people in the same profession or field indicate that there is a shorthand there,” she told me over the phone. “You understand each other’s world. Even some of the emotional stuff, you just don’t have to explain things.”

Drs. Schull and Sarrazin agree. “When you’re working hard, you’ve got the four walls of the hospital so you tend to find people within that domain. And they often understand what your life is like, and what your work’s like.”

That said, no matter what your profession, Vogels insists that you have to work hard to keep things real. That means taking time for conversations other than work (and kids, and bills, and other general mood killers!) Don’t overlook the big impact of small gestures. And realize the perfect Valentine’s Day gift is more about the time, and not the money, you spend.

Drs. Schull and Sarrazin made a conscious decision to live close to the hospital, knowing their busy schedules would only be further stressed by a long commute. “Practically, we drive to work together most days, our kids go to school nearby so we can drop them off,” says Dr. Schull. “And even though we don’t have lunch together very often, I’ll pop by to say hello or bring by coffee.”

In other words, they still care and make an effort. And anyone who is married or otherwise committed will tell you, that’s real romance. Happy Valentine’s Day!

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There’s no doubt, waiting is a drag, especially when you’re not feeling well. But the simple truth is, if you’re waiting, it’s busy behind those closed emergency ward doors. Every patient is given a “score” when they arrive in emergency by a triage nurse, depending on how sick they are and how urgently they need to be seen. But even with my Aries mentality, here’s a situation where I wouldn’t want to be first in line.

Because Sunnybrook deals with the highest number of sick people in the province, that can slow things down. But let’s face it, the business of saving lives can’t thrive on the fast food model. Acutely ill patients need many resources, and good medicine takes time. If it’s taking a while, rest assured, there’s someone much sicker being taken care of before you.

It’s also a tough go for staff. As Teresa Korogyi, Patient Care Manager of Emergency told me, you don’t go into the medical profession to keep people waiting. You do it to help, and it’s hard when that can’t happen instantly. Having done her job for years, Korogyi has heard many complain about the waits. The only exception was during a 2-week period when Sunnybrook’s emergency room was being reconstructed, and trauma patients had to come in through the public entrance. “The trauma patients would come in, some of them quite horrific, and not one patient in the waiting room asked why they aren’t first. They didn’t want to be first.“

That said, there are things you can do as a patient to ease the gridlock. Make sure you really do need to be seen in emergency before you leave home. While you’re waiting in emergency, make a list of all the medications you are taking and your medical history. And tell the triage nurses if your situation gets worse while you wait. That may change your score, and how long it takes to be seen.

It’s tough enough being a patient, let alone doing it with patience. But before your inner Aries coming seeping out, know that at Sunnybrook, at least there’s a good reason for the wait.

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The place was abuzz with hundreds of Sunnybrook staff, Toronto EMS workers and even Sick Kids staff. Everyone was wearing color-coded T-shirts for easy identification, and there was an energy usually reserved to the theatre district on a Friday night. But Sunnybrook was about to enact its finest performance yet, moving dozens of high-risk mothers, and delicate preemies, 9 kilometers up to their new home at 2075 Bayview Avenue. Years of planning, preparation and prayer had finally collided: it was moving day!

It’s no small feat moving the most delicate patients down the hall, let alone to an entirely new building uptown. But all the prep work paid off in droves. With military precision, high-risk mothers, women in labour, and glass incubators cocooning the tiniest citizens of our city rolled out of the dark halls of 76 Grenville, and into the bright and beautiful space they deserve at Sunnybrook. The new Women & Babies Program was now officially open for business, and their business is providing unparalleled care.

I followed the procession of patients, movers and health care staff from start to the finish, camera in hand (and heart on sleeve). There’s nothing quite like seeing a 200 pound physician cradling a 2 pound preemie, or meeting the grandparents of the first baby born in the new space (it was a boy, just in case you were curious!). With hands draped around contracting bellies, and new parents keeping in stride with incubators in motion, each patient was brought up to their space one by one. The parade of patients soon dissolved into 120,000 square feet of space. It was truly amazing to see.

Now that it’s all done, I’d equate the move to childbirth itself. Anticipation turns to pain and then to joy when it’s all over. As with parenting, now the real work begins for the new unit. Luckily, the fancy new digs make that easy to do.

Learn more about Sunnybrook’s Women & Babies Program

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