The director of performance at the Erie St. Clair LHIN believes people waiting for hip and knee replacements should be aware of different wait times at hospitals so they can decide if they want to go out of their home community to speed up the process.
Pete Crvenkovski says Bluewater Health has the lowest wait times in the catchment area, followed by the Ouellette campus of Windsor Regional Hospital.
The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance has the longest wait times and Crvenkovski says officials are studying the system to find out why.
"I think we will also find opportunities to standardize certain portions. Bluewater may be doing things we can incorporate at [CKHA] for instance," he says. "We've seen some declining performance over the last number of months for the Met Campus [in Windsor]. Chatham has been sort of sporadic."
Crvenkovski says Bluewater Health used some reserve funds to improve volumes.
Chief Executive of the Health Alliance Colin Patey says overall performance is not just about wait times and says the Chatham based hospital has the lowest cost for the surgeries and the hospital stay after is the shortest in the LHIN.