The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is working on a strategy to clear a large surgical backlog that has reached 2,000 procedures.
Hospital CEO Lori Marshall said the local hospitals will do 2,000 fewer surgeries this fiscal year (March 2020-March 2021) compared to the previous year because the pandemic forced the organization to cancel or postpone surgical services to deal with COVID-19 surges at different times throughout the past year. Marshall said hospital staff are keeping a close eye on current wait times and comparing them with previous wait times to get a better handle on how to move forward and estimate how long it will take to clear up the surgical backlog. She said the hospitals should have a better idea soon of how long it will take to clear up the surgical backlog and what areas will be targeted for improvement.
Marshall said the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is currently recruiting anesthetists and operating room nurses to increase services and deal with the backlog. She said all surgical categories have been affected by delays to some degree and added a new Urology operating room should be open soon to help catch up those services. The new operating room will give the hospitals seven surgical suites.
"We do really need to put a focus, whether it's on strategic plan or whether it's next year's operating plan, towards that surgical renewal and bringing people in," said Marshall. "I would anticipate we'll be creating a plan that sees us definitely doing more than our normal surgical plan and that will include the potential for doing more on an outpatient basis and day surgery because we need to make sure that all of our expansion could be accomplished with the number of beds that we have."
Some nurses have also come out of retirement to help administer the COVID-19 vaccines and Marshall said they could be asked to stay on, if they want, to help catch up other hospital services once the pandemic starts to wind down. Marshall said she's forever grateful to them for stepping up and lending a hand and the hospital will address that issue later when the retired nurses are done helping with the vaccinations.
The hospital's board of directors is also finalizing the organization's strategic plan for the next three years and Board Chair Greg Aarssen said it should be released soon. Aarssen said it will focus on community needs.
