Windsor Regional Hospital has a new initiative in place to help their most vulnerable patients.
The hospital is teaming up with the Downtown Mission by creating a liaison program, designed to connect homeless and at-risk patients to resources they may need after they have received treatment at the hospital. The program, set to begin next week, will start with the WRH Ouellette campus at first.
The Downtown Mission has hired two employees who will serve as "navigators". They will work five days a week from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., with rotating weekends, with one stationed at the hospital and the other at the Mission. Their primary job is to help an at-risk patient through the process of receiving treatment, then hooking them up with services such as meals, shelter, follow-up appointments, and more.
Hospital President and CEO David Musyj said the program will be in place to ease the strain on emergency room resources, since many of these at-risk patients are unable to get to follow-up appointments and must return to the emergency department for further treatment.
"Just imagine an individual, on a simple case, has a cut on his or her leg, gets it bandaged up, treated, stitched," said Musyj. "Unfortunately, they're [supposed] to follow up. They don't make the follow-up appointment. That gets infected. Days later they have to come back."
Ron Dunn, executive director of the Downtown Mission, said the new "navigator" service will ensure that these people are getting the care they require.
"Instead of being discharged from hospital and say 'go here, go there', our navigator will get them a cab or even go in a cab with them if necessary, to the appropriate place, or back to the Mission where we can get them hooked up with basic need," said Dunn.
The actions of the "navigator" will be done in accordance with the input of the emergency department. These actions also include connecting with support agencies such as the Distress Centre, the Windsor Youth Centre, addiction recovery programs, women's support groups and others.
The program is paid for through funding provided to the Mission's Phoenix Recovery and Wellness Program.