The Citizen, 2008-05-22, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 22, 2008.
Mitchell and Steckle
praise CFHT for efforts
HE council awards four tenders
Continued from page 7
“I don’t remember what year that
was, and I don’t know if it happened
as quickly as I had hoped, but I’ve
had that [quotation] cut out and on
my desk for a long time to remind
me that I’d said that,” he admitted.
“This is the culmination of a long
journey.”
Bezaire and Dr. Hay were among
those who gave speeches prior to the
CMB ribbon-cutting ceremony on
May 9, as were Huron-Bruce MPP
Carol Mitchell and MP Paul
Steckle.
Mitchell spoke first, praising the
CFHT and its doctors in particular.
She said that the family health team
model only works when doctors are
“willing to work in a team
approach.”
“The doctors here have always
risen to the occasion,” she said,
adding later that “it really is my
privilege that I can stand here today
and talk about the success story that
Clinton has been.”
Steckle spoke to the collaborative
spirit present in his riding, saying “I
see spirit here that is not evident in
the larger centres that I frequent
from time to time. We have a
community spirit of working
together, and we … really, whether
we know it or not, are working as
teams within our community.”
Steckle also praised and thanked
the doctors, noting that many of
them have been in the community
for a number of years.
Central Huron reeve Bert Dykstra
was the last to speak, bringing
greetings from council and noting
the role that the local hospital and
healthcare professionals play in
attracting people to the area and
enticing them to stay here.
He closed his remarks by thanking
the group and offering his
congratulations.
The Citiz
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Emergency departments play a
very important role in the health care
system and are used by millions of
Canadians each year.
One of the most often talked about
aspects of emergency departments is
how long people wait for care. As a
group of professionals committed to
providing you with the best
emergency care possible, we felt it
important to address the issue of ED
wait times.
A number of recent reports
published by the Canadian Institute
for Health Information have
provided information on the types of
patients using our emergency
departments, including how long
they are waiting for services.
The most recent report,Analysis in
Brief (January 2007) looked more
closely at wait times in Ontario. It
specifically focused on: variations in
the overall time spent in the
emergency department by type of
hospital and geographic location;
wait times to initial physician
assessment; variations by nurse
triage level (assessment of patient
symptoms) assigned to the patient on
arrival; and, discharge time from the
emergency department.
Key findings included:
• about 60 per cent of patients
hospitalized were admitted through
the emergency department
• patients admitted through the
emergency department were more
likely to be older and sicker with
multiple and/or severe medical
conditions
• overall, one in 25 patients waited
in the emergency department longer
than 24 hours to access an acute care
inpatient bed
• medium-volume emergency
departments in community hospitals
have between 15,000-30,000 visits
annually
• low-volume emergency
departments in community hospitals
have less than 15,000 visits annually
• total time spent in the emergency
department varies by volume and
hospital type
• low-volume emergency
departments generally have shorter
wait times than medium-volume
emergency departments depending
on the patient’s triage category
If You are Sicker, Do You Get
Seen More Quickly?
Nursing staff strive to access
patients arriving in the emergency
departments within fifteen minutes
using the Canadian Triage and
Acuity Scale.
There are five CTAS levels, with
one requiring urgent care and five
requiring non-urgent care that could
be delayed or postponed. All
patients are assigned a level that
determines how quickly a physician
needs to see them.
The initial physician assessment
can often be delayed based on actual
volumes and severity of patients
already in the emergency department
when additional patients arrive.
It is important for the community
to know that there is only one
emergency department physician on-
call in each of the four Alliance
hospital emergency departments.
There is the capacity to call-in
assistance from another physician
based on the direction from the
emergency physician on-call.
This can occur if there is a
significant increase in the volume
and severity of patients arriving in
the emergency department (ie by
ambulance, police, motor vehicle
accidents, etc). On average, all
patients, regardless of triage level,
can expect to spend about four hours
in the emergency department.
Emergency department patients
who have been admitted and
requiring an inpatient bed are likely
to spend longer delays in the
department because they may
require additional tests, consults
with specialists or, in most cases,
wait for an inpatient bed to become
available.
The Huron Perth Healthcare
Alliance emergency department staff
will make every reasonable effort to
communicate to patients and
families about their wait times and
possible delays in physician
assessments based on the volume of
patients and how busy the
department is during your visit. The
emergency department staff asks for
your patience and understanding in
their efforts to have patients seen,
assessed and treated as
soon as possible. Their goal is to
make every patient’s emergency
department experience a great
one!
Caring ForYouUnderstanding ER wait timesSubmitted by theHuron PerthHealthcare AllianceEmergency RoomNurses At its May 6 meeting, Huron Eastcouncil approved $387,455.48 inaccounts payable. The amount was altered from theoriginal $400,247.48 due to a
discrepancy in the amount of one
cheque that will be held off until the
next round of accounts payable.
***
Mayor Joe Seili and clerk-
administrator Jack McLachlan were
authorized by council to sign an
offer to grant an easement to Hydro
One for an anchor post in McKillop
ward.
After approaching the
municipality with a new layout to
upgrade the services on Humphries
Street and Brussels Line in Walton,
Hydro One says they need an anchor
post on the corner of Humphries
Street and Blyth Road. The anchor is
on the municipal ball park property.
***
A recommendation by Knight that
the municipality purchase software
that would assist the municipality in
its asset management was tabled by
council until Knight could gather
more information on the software.
Two points that made council
uneasy were the annual maintenancecosts of nearly $1,500 as well as theuncertainty of the information themunicipality entered into the system. With the software being web-
based, council was concerned that
there would be no way to back up
the information if there happened to
be a large system crash or if the
company that distributes and
maintains the software were to fold.
***
Council awarded several tenders at
its May 6 meeting. There were four
tenders to be discussed.
The tender for the Brussels street
reconstruction was awarded to
Lavis Contracting at a price of
$958,694.36, which comes in
$296,305.64 under proposed cost.
The tender for rural surface
treatment was awarded to MSO
Construction at the price of
$221,245.45. This treatment is
expected to cover 15.9 km of road in
Huron East. The tender leaves
$42,754.55 to cover incidental costs
to complete the project.
A tender for a new zero turn
commercial lawn mower was
awarded to Vincent Farm Equipment
for the price of $11,356.50.***Council passed a motion that willallow Huron County to repair theBrussels bridge. While the county
owns the bridge, the municipality
owns the light standards, which the
county would like to move.
The light standards will be
relocated to the grass areas on either
side of the bridge.
***
A detour that would take motorists
to County Road 16 and Krauter Line
through Huron East was approved
by council.
The request came from Huron
County which will be repairing the
Ethel Bridge this summer and will
have to detour traffic around the
bridge.
Huron’s acting public works
director Dave Laurie stated that
normal procedure would be to detour
motorists on county roads, but
in this case it would make for
a long detour, clicking in at over
40 km.
The Ethel bridge project is
expected to commence in July and it
should end by November.
Huron East council briefs