CKHA plan comes with savings — and layoffs

The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance 2017/18 Recovery Plan projects $3 million in savings that will involve further job reductions, but also includes $1 million in capital investments.

A total of 26 full-time and 15 parttime positions will be eliminated in the areas of Women & Children’s Program, the Emergency Department, office and clerical as well as other positions spread across a number departments including inpatient medicine, diagnostic imaging support, lab, housekeeping and unit support on inpatient surgery. However, none of the job reductions will impact the Sydenham Campus in Wallaceburg.

Lori Marshall, president and CEO, described the plan during a media conference on Tuesday as a “very focused approach to matching our resources to our volumes.”

She noted benchmarking has “identified that we have been staffing (the ER) at a level similar to much larger hospitals with higher volumes of patients and also higher levels of acuity moving through the emergency department.”

There will be nine full-time equivalent positions reduced in the ER, but this will be offset by an additional six physician hours per day. There will also be a shift in staffing patterns to match when most patients come into the ER.

Marshall credits physicians for showing great leadership in this area by making changes to their scheduling.

Planned investments in capital equipment for the ER include a Laryngoscope, as well as point of care ultrasound and resources to support advanced training for physicians at both campuses.

Marshall said the 10.6 full-time equivalent staff reduction in Women and Children’s Program is an area “where traditionally, over the last three years, we’ve had occupancy levels of below 60 per cent ... and yet we’ve been staffing at 100 per cent occupancy.”

New investments for this area will include a neonatal/infant transport isolette for critical patient transfers to tertiary centres and new bassinets. The CKHA also plans program and service enhancements such as adding 73 knee replacements and 14 hip replacements and increasing respiratory coverage of the Sydenham campus to 16 hours per day.

Faced with a $20-million-plus debt, the CKHA has to make changes.

Rob Devitt, provincial-appointed hospital supervisor, said the CKHA has operated at a deficit for many years leading to a financial situation where it was unable to invest in new programs, equipment or facilities. “There’s nothing in this plan that hasn’t been done elsewhere in Ontario,” he said.

Devitt said this isn’t about money targets, “this is about sustainability and quality.”

He acknowledges there has been a lot of anxiety among staff over the release of this recovery plan.

“I don’t want to minimize it,” Devitt said. “We are talking about people’s jobs and their certainty — what they know. And this is still uncertain, cause they’re now going to go home and process this.”

He anticipates as the CKHA comes out of this at the end of the year, “it will be a lot smoother than people maybe are thinking it will be in the moment.”

Devitt added he knows people will look at this through the lens of what it means for their jobs and the fact they likely already feel busy enough.

“We have to prove to them that this is going to work and we’re absolutely confident it will,” he said.

Marshall said there is a commitment to involve and engage staff in developing what the plans are going to look like.