The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Board of Directors for the St. Joseph’s, Public General and Sydenham District Hospitals gathered on Thursday for a meeting.
Here is a list of items that were discussed:
Whistleblower policy
Approved the immediate adoption of CKHA’s new Whistleblower policy, which has been developed to encourage and enable the good faith reporting of serious alleged or potential improper conduct or wrongdoing and/or violations of hospital policies related to ethical behaviour or business conduct, without fear of reprisal.
Quality improvement
Focused on Quality by receiving two reports on the Quality Improvement Plan (QIP). The first was to officially close the 2014/15 QIP, which remained open until the final data sets were available in fall 2015. The second was to review the current QIPs goals; the following are the current QIP indicators and the status of each at the end of Q3:
– Reduce ED Length of Stay for Admitted Patients CKHA is exceeding target at 9.1 hours where the province is currently performing at 24.7 hours.
– Improve Organizational Financial Health CKHA is not meeting its balanced budget target.
– Reduce Alternate Level of Care Days CKHA is exceeding target at 4.8% compared with a provincial reference of 13.9%.
– Reduce Hospital Readmission CKHA is exceeding target at 4.2% compared to a provincial reference of 16.7%.
– Improve Patient Satisfaction results indicate patient satisfaction for in-patient care is exceeding target at 97.4%, while work continues on improving satisfaction with ED care at both sites.
– Increase Medication Reconciliation on Admission and Transfer CKHA is exceeding target on both admission and transfer;
– Reduce C. difficile Infections CKHA did not meet its target with 6 cases of hospital acquired C.difficile in Q3. This occurred in individual patients who were at high risk for developing the disease, and there were zero cases of transmission from one patient to another.
New Hospital Information System
Received a progress report on the new Hospital Information System (HIS) for CKHA and the Erie St. Clair region. CKHA’s current system is end-of-life and no vendor support will be available by March 31, 2018. The Request for Proposal issued in November (on behalf of all hospitals in Erie St. Clair) resulted in the contract for the regional HIS deployment strategy being awarded to KPMG and the development of a benefits realization plan, associated with the deployment of an integrated electronic medical record solution across southwestern Ontario, being awarded to Deloitte. The project is positioned favorably for a kick-off in the first half of fiscal 2016/17.
Financial report
Received financial statements ending December 31, 2015, indicating the organization continues to face fiscal pressures with a forecasted year end deficit of $1.8 M. The current deficit position is $737,000 as a result of operations. Planning for 2016/2017 year is underway with a view to finding opportunities for programmatic realignment, integration across health systems as well as additional analysis on the impact of the funding formula.
Patient Safety
Accepted the CEO’s Report, which among other initiatives highlighted, patient safety:
– Patient falls and repeat falls are decreasing. The number of patients with one or more falls is monitored and reported monthly. The month of December 2015 showed the lowest number of falls (6) and repeat falls (0) since September, 2014. Strategies to decrease first time falls and repeat falls continue through detailed initial assessments along with ‘post fall huddles’.
– The rate of new pressure ulcers is decreasing as compared with rates from the previous 2 quarters. Wound and Skin Specialists assess each high risk patient on admission and plan strategies to promote good skin health during the hospital stay
– CKHA hand hygiene compliance rates have exceeded target (85% or greater) for the past 6 months with a December compliance rate of 89%.
Appointments
Dr. Neerja Sharma has been appointed as Regional Colonoscopy and Cervical Cancer Screening Lead for the Erie St. Clair Regional Cancer Program.
Leader in Innovation
CKHA’s partnership with Oculys continues with the PREDict project, which provides real-time reporting of Emergency Department wait times, the predicted wait time over the next 12 hours and to provide real-time analytics and productivity analysis measuring Emergency Department performance.
CKHA is also also working with Oculys on the development of a “consultant” paging application. The concept is similar to the Housekeeping/Portering system previously developed; however, it will be used to better enable the process of requesting a consultation, communication amongst providers and tracking response times, turn around times and other key metrics designed to reduce ED waits and turn around times. These are all currently internally facing tools. If successful, the tools can be optimized for external facing data that may assist the community in understanding current ED and/or expected wait times.
CKHA is also working with Oculys on another innovation strategy – StayTrack. This system is designed to essentially replace the “white-board” control boards on units and departments. It will help to better plan discharges, enable better communication amongst providers and across systems through a digital “white-board”. This project was funded by the Ontario Centres of Excellence grant program.
Health Link
In early December the ESC LHIN and the CK Health Link team hosted a delegation from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care including the Assistant Deputy Minister for Quality and Funding at the LHIN office. The entire day was dedicated to showcasing the CK Health Link team, processes, systems and tools. The MOH delegation was very interested and excited by the outcomes demonstrated and have initiated discussions about how the Chatham-Kent team could be positioned to support other deployments of common tools and processes across the province’s Health Links.
Patient Experience
CKHA launched its Guest Wi-Fi network on December 16, 2015. Patients, families and visitors can now enjoy free wireless across in-patient units and the ED at both campuses.
Communications
CKHA hosted a live Twitter Chat on December 11, 2015 with Paula Reaume-Zimmer, Integrated Director of Operations, Mental Health and Addictions Programs, CKHA & Canadian Mental Health Association Lambton-Kent, on the topic of mental health tips for the holidays. The chat resulted in resources for those in need of support and about 15 new followers. This was the second live chat and the team is working on strategies to increase promotion of these interactive engagement sessions.
Received a report from the Foundation of CKHA that noted the 5th Annual Charity Curling Classic, being held in Wallaceburg on February 6 is sold out. The report also noted that tickets are now on sale for the 14th Annual Parade of Chefs on April 7.
The Alliance Board’s next meeting is 6:00 p.m. on March 31, 2016 at the Frank and Mary Uniac Auditorium, Chatham Campus. Kindly RSVP 519-437-6001.
