A pilot project at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is reducing wait times in the emergency room at the Chatham-Campus for both patients who will be admitted and those who will be going back home.
Chief Nursing Executive Willi Kirenko says the campus is moving up in rankings on a list of 74 hospitals.
"We changed for the month of January from 37th place overall to 25th place overall for the month of February, so the activities and strategies that are underway are having an effect," she says. "The length of stay for admitted patients (in emergency before moving to in-patient beds) around the province is 30.3 hours and I believe we are tracking at 10.9 hours."
She says getting the entire team at the hospital including dietitians and house-keeping involved sooner especially helps patients to be moved from emergency to in-patient rooms in a more timely manner.
The Sydenham emergency department is not part of the ranking project because it has a smaller number of clients.