The former CEO of Horizon Health wanted to return the province’s hospitals to the “red phase” of COVID-19 measures just days before he was fired.
Dr. John Dornan said in a July 11 email that “a seventh wave of COVID is upon us,” with increasing hospitalizations and outbreaks among staff.
Horizon’s Infectious Disease Control and Infection Control Committee “recommended moving to a ‘Red Hospital’ phase next week if the numbers continue to deteriorate,” Dornan wrote in the email obtained by CBC News.
Dornan wrote that employees “could make that call collectively on Monday or Tuesday of next week,” referring to July 18 and 19.
The red phase shift never happened, although the numbers continued to deteriorate.
The following Tuesday, the two health authorities reported increases in weekly COVID-19 admissions, active hospitalizations, hospital-acquired outbreaks and staff infections between July 10-16.
Dornan was fired on July 15.
A key element of the red phase protocols will be the ban on routine visitors visiting patients in hospitals.
In his email, the then-CEO said the move to the red phase “depends” on Vitalité and Public Health agreeing to do so.
But the health chief medical officer, Dr. Jennifer Russell, said Wednesday she had no idea why it didn’t go red.
“I don’t want to speak for the RHA. They are the decision-makers in this case, so they are the authority on what happens in their own operations,” she said.
Dornan said in the July 11 email that it was “likely” Horizon would announce the possibility of a red phase “publicly this week as a warning. It’s good to be transparent.”
This has never happened.
At the time of Dornan’s sacking, Premier Blaine Higgs said a change in leadership was needed to break the “bureaucratic gridlock” in the health system and push through reforms to tackle long waiting lists and congested emergency departments.
Higgs made the changes after the death of a patient awaiting care in the emergency room at Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton.
Dr. John Dornan was fired from his position as CEO of Horizon Health. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Vitalité’s vice president of medical services, Nathalie Banville, responded to Dornan’s July 11 email that she had spoken with CEO Frans Derosier and health authority officials wanted to “analyze the situation more closely.”
She said cases were increasing, but only two of Vitalité’s 17 admissions were “related to COVID.”
“We need to take a closer look at the epidemiology and the situation in the area before moving to a red phase,” Banville wrote, saying Vitalité’s leadership would meet on July 12 and respond with a recommendation.
Dornan thanked her and said Horizon would “try to be on the same page.” It’s unclear what Vitalité ended up recommending the next day, or why Dornan’s replacement, interim CEO Margaret Melanson, didn’t go through with her plan.
Unlike Dornan, Desrosiers remains in his post as CEO of Vitalité.
Dornan declined an interview request from CBC News about his email. “I have no comment,” he said Wednesday.
In a statement to CBC News, Melanson said Horizon has “acquired more knowledge about the virus” during the pandemic and can now adopt “more targeted and flexible” measures while maintaining essential services and allowing visitors.
The statement did not mention why Dornan felt differently and favored a full transition to a red phase less than four weeks ago.
Three days after his email and one day before he was fired as CEO, Dornan encouraged Horizon employees in an internal memo to “consider setting an example” by wearing masks in indoor public spaces due to “escalating” transmission of COVID-19.
A Department of Health spokesman said on July 18 that Dornan’s dismissal was “unrelated” to that memo.
Horizon and Vitalité entered the red phase on December 31 during a wave of Omicron cases. They returned to the orange phase on June 20.
Dornan’s July 11 email referred to an incoming “seventh wave,” although provincial public health officials are reluctant to use the term.
Russell told the Brunswick News on July 12 that he may not call future increases in cases waves.
“I don’t want to call it a wave in the sense that everyone defines it differently. I’m saying it’s an increased number of cases,” she told the newspaper. “Whether it’s a wave or not a wave, we’re seeing an increased level of activity in COVID cases.”
Between July 10 and 16, the same week Dornan wrote the email and was fired, 30 people were newly admitted to hospitals for COVID-19, up from 15 the previous week.
That number jumped again to 40 people between July 17 and 23.
The two health authorities had 209 hospital staff between July 10 and 16. This increased to 229 during the week of July 17-23.
As of July 16, Horizon and Vitalité had 84 actively hospitalized patients with COVID-19. A week later it increased to 90.
The number of weekly new cases fell last week for the first time in weeks. Those numbers track infections from July 17 to 23, and officials said that could mean the number of hospitalizations, which has lagged behind cases by a week or two, will soon peak and also begin to decline.
In new numbers released Wednesday for July 24-30, the number of new weekly cases fell again, and the number of hospitalizations and active hospitalizations for COVID-19 decreased slightly.
Add Comment