First Total Ankle Replacement at the CKHA (Screengrab via CKHA Media YouTube)First Total Ankle Replacement at the CKHA (Screengrab via CKHA Media YouTube)
Chatham

Surgical wait times, staffing at CKHA continue to improve

The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is reporting progress in performing surgeries and filling staff vacancies.

Hospital officials said the surgical program is ahead of schedule and has been exceeding targets since March.

"The CKHA team is working extremely hard to address access to care for patients whose waiting time is outside of their target," said hospital officials. "As was reported several months ago, the number of patients waiting outside the target time for their surgery continues to decrease, and exceeds our performance from prior to the pandemic."

CKHA also said it has recruited 66 "externs" over the past seven weeks. Externs are nursing and medical staff still in training.

CKHA is reporting that the current workforce vacancy rate is at 8 per cent, down from 8.2 per cent in early June. The vacancy rate takes into account regular staff turnover and staff additions for new programs, such as the Withdrawal Management Program.

Hospital occupancy is also sitting at approximately 95 per cent, according to CKHA. The leadership at the hospital told CK News Today that the hospital occupancy has fluctuated between 95 per cent and 103 per cent this year.

They also said overall volumes in the emergency departments (ED) are not extraordinary. However, patients coming to the ED are more sick because they have put off or couldn't get care during the pandemic.

"We suspect years of delayed care due to the pandemic, caregiver burnout, and admissions related to social issues," said CKHA.

Those social issues include drug overdoses. According to the June 2022 statistics from Chatham-Kent Public Health, there have been 25 opioid overdose-related visits to the emergency department by residents to date.

The public health unit also reported 21 overdose deaths to date that they suspect are related to drugs, including a number of them related to opioids, compared to 15 confirmed opioid deaths in all of 2021 and 15 in 2020.

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