Huron Expositor, 2009-04-22, Page 2Pott 2 The Huron Expositor • April 22, 2009
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Seaforth's ER remains hospital's big challenge, says CEO
From Page 1
nations involved in local healthcare
a chance to explain who they are and
what they do.
Michael Barrett, CEO of the South
West LHIN (Local Health Inte-
gration Network), began the eve-
ning explaining how the 14 'LHINs
throughout Ontario fund hospitals,
Community Care Access Centres,
mental health and addictions agen-.
cies, community health centres and
long-term care homes but not phy-
sicians and clinics, ambulance ser-
vices, labs, provincial drug programs
and public health.
"A lot of people don't know what
+lir
a LHIN is. We're a large geographi-
cal area with just under one million
people and we get a heck of a lot of
money with the responsibility of en
scaring it's used properly," he said of
the South West. LRM1.
He said 75 per cent of the $1.9 bil-
lion distributed by the South • West
LHIN goes to its 20 hospitals.
Andrew Williams, CEO of the Hu-
ron Perth Healthcare Alliance, ex-
plained the history and structure
of the HPHA, which runs . Seaforth
Community Hospital, Clinton Public
Hospital, Stratford GeneralHospital
and St. Marys Memorial Hospital.
"When Maureen suggested the
meeting, we jumped at the idea.
There's a lot of good work going on in
this community," he said.
Williams said that despite the fi-
nancial pressures on hospitals with
revenues going up one per cent less
than their expenditures, the Alliance
has a balanced budget.
At .-the Seaforth hospital, he said
there has been an increase in patient
days, ambulatory visits, staffing
hours and clinical staff hours and a
decrease in administrative costs.
_`The big challenge obviously is the
emergency department," said Wil-
liams, adding that Seaforth's ER is
now being .called a 14 -hour emer-
gency, challenging the Ministry of
Health's definition of an emergency
department as a 24-hour service.
He added that compared : to last
year from February to April, the
numbers of patients at the Seaforth
ER have decreased sightly from
2,063 to 1,825.
"The vast majority of patients we
see - come during the day," he said.
Responding to questions/about the
decision made in February to close
Seaforth's ER overnight because of a
shortage of nurses, Williams said the
Alliance cannot force- nurses to -move
from other sites to keep, Seaforth's
ER open 24 hours a day.
Seaforth Community Hospital site
administrator Mary . Cardinal added
that while * no offers 'have yet been
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made, the hospital is "very close"
to recruiting both a full-time and a
part-time ER nurse.
"We're hopeful we have a few good
prospects but it's not final until it's
final," she said.
She reiterated that while nurses
throughout the Alliance have been
polled to see if they would fill the va-
cancies at Seaforth's ER, other hos-
pitals are also "one nurse away from
the situation we face."
ance, Williams said each site needs
to develop its own specialty and try
to stop the duplication of services.
But, he stressed that the Alliance
is 100 per cent committed to the vi-
ability of all four hospitals.
When asked what would happen
to the assets of Seaforth's hospital if
it were to close, Williams said it was
a , difficult question to answer since
the closure of any hospital has never
been discussed..:{«
Williams said that while Seaforth "I, for one, am extremely proud of
is the only hospital in Ontario run- the work done in Seaforth: There are
ning its emergency department from not many places in Ontario that have
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. because of the nurs- access to as high a quality of care as
ung shortage, Stratford's hospital we do," he said, adding that not man
recently closed a number of beds be- healthcare campuses would be able
cause of a lack of nurses and other to brag about organizations similar
hospitals are close to closing their to Healthkick Huron, the Gateway
ERs because of the physician short- Rural Health Research Centre and
age. • the support of the municipality and
'This is the tip of the iceberg - the the two development trusts in Sea-
system is experiencing such strain," forth and Brussels.
he said. "I think there's a lot of hope. We
Williams said that while the Alli- have a fantastic system and a great
once employs close to 300 nurses, a team in. Seaforth. There are a lot of
shortage of 113,000 nurses is pre- great things we are doingand great
dieted across Canada and . the .'Al- possibilities lie ahead of us," he
fiance has to find creative ways to said.
meet that challenge.,
"The worst thing we can do is the
statpa quo," he said, adding that the
healthcare recruit has changed radi-
cally from 25 years ago.
He explained that while healthcare
graduates used to be generalists,
they now have very specific ideas
about the job they're looking for, add-
lini
ealth
draw
What's happening at a Seaforth
healthcare. campus in . both the old
ing that nursing grads are no longer buildings and the new ones was the
willing to cover the ER when they've
taken a job on the inpatient ward.
"We have a very different person
coming in today and unless we ad-
just, we'll have trouble recruiting. An
RN can find the exact job she wants,"
said Williams.
Looking to the future for the
,A!►lli
focus ofa number of questions by
community members attending the
information meeting about health-
care in Seaforth last Tuesday.
Responding to a question about
why a second building would be built
for the Huron Community Family
Health 'am when a medical clinic
building already
existed, Huron
East Mayor Joe
Se' ' said the nIu-
nicipality want-
ed to put taxpay-
ers' money into
land owned by
the municipality.
"Would you
build a building
oqf your neigh-
our's property?"
he said, * adding
that if the build-
ing is ever sold,
the proceeds
would go back to
Huron East tax-
payers.
He also said
that with the
helipad located
directly behind
the medical clin-
ic, there wasn't
much room for
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