Deb Crawford, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) Board Chair, has announced that Lori Marshall, CKHA President & CEO, will be retiring in the summer of 2024.
“It is with mixed feelings that I am sharing with you that after a 39 year distinguished healthcare career and a considerable amount of thought and detailed planning, Lori Marshall, President & CEO, has confirmed her plans to retire from Chatham-Kent Health Alliance in the summer of 2024,” said Deb Crawford, in a median release.
“While we are thrilled for Lori as she embarks on the next chapter of her life, her retirement is an incredible loss for our organization.”
Hospital officials say Marshall was recruited from an executive role at the former Community Care Access Centre for Essex, Lambton and Kent when she joined CKHA in 2017 as President and CEO.
Upon assuming her role at CKHA, Marshall entered an organizational landscape governed by Provincial Supervision.
Her tenure began in early 2017, working closely with the Provincial Supervisor to implement the recommendations until his departure in March 2018.
Subsequently, a new Board took charge, responding to substantial financial challenges with a comprehensive restructuring of the hospital’s operational framework.
During her first year as President and CEO at CKHA, concentrated efforts were made to rejuvenate morale and trust through a variety of strategies and a focus on financial stability.
Transparency emerged as a cornerstone during this period, a principle that remains deeply ingrained as a core value at CKHA and with Marshall as President and CEO, hospital officials say.
During Marshall’s time at CKHA, she has been instrumental in securing Ministry funding for the Wallaceburg Redevelopment Project.
The project successfully saw a new Power Plant built with a focus on a new Emergency Department, Diagnostic Imaging, Lab and six bed inpatient care area.
Recently a new medical day care area was opened for patients and families to receive treatment.
Other successful projects Marshall has led include the Withdrawal Management Service.
The service provides a supportive environment to enable safe withdrawal from substances and initiation of follow up addictions treatment.
This 10-bed service responds to the pressing need of addiction services in the community.
With a focus on Mental Health at CKHA and within the community, the new Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine (RAAM) Clinic opened in 2019 in Chatham and an office in Wallaceburg in 2021.
Also in 2021, she was instrumental in transitioning the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program to Chatham-Kent formerly operated by Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, CKHA officials say.
“Lori has always believed in patient family centred care,” said Crawford, in a press release.
“She is a collaborator and strong partner across the healthcare system, not only in Chatham-Kent but across the province.”
Under Lori’s leadership, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is a founding partner of the Chatham-Kent Ontario Health team (CKOHT), one of the first Ontario Health teams to receive approval in 2019 from the Ministry of Health, hospital officials say.
Her contributions as founding Chair and Co-Chair of the CKOHT has ensured that CKHA has been an active participant in health system transformation.
Marshall’s commitment to high quality care during her leadership includes CKHA’s designation from Accreditation Canada for “Accreditation with Exemplary standing” for the entire organization for the period of 2022-2026.
CKHA also successfully met accreditation standards for specialty areas of stroke care and medical lab through separate reviews in the same year.
She led the successful delivery of two CKHA strategic plans, which guided the journey of transforming the community hospital experience and the development of the organization’s mission, vision and values.
Marshall also led CKHA’s COVID-19 response.
She worked with partners and the community to build a field hospital, worked together to provide COVID-19 testing to the community, and launched a community COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic with CK Public Health and Chatham-Kent Emergency Management Services (EMS).
Additionally Marshall and the CKHA team provided staffing support to some local Long Term Care Homes when they experienced significant outbreaks.
During the pandemic, CKHA transitioned to an electronic health record, called Cerner, which was an incredible feat under the leadership of Lori while under many restrictions due to the pandemic.
In response to the multitude of non-urgent surgical procedure cancellations during the early waves of the pandemic, CKHA developed and implemented strategies to address delays in care.
CKHA’s Surgical Renewal project saw much success; this project was inclusive of initiatives to address the procedure backlog that was created by the pandemic.
CKHA exceeded 100% of pre-pandemic surgical volumes by reaching 8,900 cases in 2022/23 – this was the highest in five years.
“Lori is a caring, thoughtful and strategic leader and truly embodies the CKHA vision of Together, Growing a Healthier Community,” said Dr. Zeke Milkovic, Acting Chief of Staff, in a media release.
“She has worked very hard to prepare the organization to continue to excel after she retires. The Physician group wishes Lori well in her retirement and offers sincere gratitude for leading our organization the last seven years.”
Most recently, CKHA faced yet another unprecedented challenge when its regional hospital partners and shared service provider TransForm Shared Services Organization (TSSO) faced a cyber attack.
During this incredibly challenging period, Marshall led CKHA through several weeks of a hospital-wide digital system outage while leading cyber security experts worked in tandem with TSSO to contain the attack and rebuild systems with enhanced security features.
“Lori’s retirement this summer will be a celebration of an incredible career and an incredible chapter in CKHA’s history,” added Deb Crawford.
“Lori has been working closely with the Board to plan for this significant announcement. Because of Lori’s leadership, we are set for success and a future of clear purpose and focus on high quality, patient and family centred care. Through Lori’s guidance and legacy, we will together, build a healthier community.”
Here is a video message from Crawford:
The Board of Directors has established a CEO Selection Committee to oversee the recruitment process, and are in the process of engaging a recruitment firm to initiate a search for a new President and CEO.
