SUTURE KITS & RESOURCES
Reducing transfers from LTC homes to Emergency Departments has been incredibly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, as part of the Victoria-South Island LTCI’s COVID response plan, our team provided suture kits to fifteen homes that didn't have kits onsite. In the six months that followed, eight homes used their kits nineteen times, and eighteen transfers to the ED were prevented. When LTC homes have suture kits onsite, physicians are able to make in-home suturing a standard practice, thereby reducing ED transfers for simple laceration repairs.
Suture Kit Info For Owned and Operated & Affiliate Sites
A new process is now in place for Island Health Owned and Operated and Affiliate Sites to access suture kits, which will be assembled in The Summit’s Stores area. The process is as follows:
- Site Manager/DOC sends an email to Laurie Gnam ([email protected]) to request a kit or kits (the placing of orders should be limited to once per month or quarter)
- Laurie records orders per site and notifies The Summit Stores team of order requests
- Laurie notifies sites when their kits are ready for pick-up
- Sites are responsible for picking up their kits from reception at The Summit
- Affiliate sites will be billed by Island Health for kits purchased through this process.
For further information about the new process for obtaining suture kits from Island Health, please contact [email protected]
Suture Kit Info For Private Sites
Private LTC homes that aren't affiliated with Island Health will NOT be able to access suture kits through the above process. Instead, private sites will need to use their own procurement methods to access supplies.
A Suture Kit Supply List, along with the contact information for the Territory Rep for the Stevens Company can be found here.
Please be aware that the LTCI is no longer able to provide suture kit supplies to sites. However, feel free to contact our team if procurement issues arise at your site - we're happy to help problem-solve in any way we can!
Suturing Resources for Simple Laceration Repair
For articles and videos on simple laceration repair techniques, please click here.