Cancer Care Ontario’s Cancer Performance Steering Committee has recognized Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) for meeting its provincial annual improvement targets for the performance indicators Surgical Oncology – Referral to Consult and Pathology Post-Surgical Report Turnaround Time for All Disease Sites for the 2015/16 fiscal year.
CKHA also achieved the most improved hospital in Ontario for the indicator Surgical Oncology Program: Decision to Treat to Treatment.
“Receiving this recognition from Cancer Care Ontario demonstrates that we are consistently meeting best practice and providing quality cancer care close to home,” said Nancy Snobelen, Director of Partnerships and System Integration, CKHA. “Our team’s commitment to performance improvement for these critical indicators benefits our patients and their families who require cancer services locally.”
Cancer Care Ontario’s performance indicators represent the proportion of patients who are receiving cancer services within the recommended timeframe or target. The interval “Referral to Consult” represents the time between a referral to a specialist to the time that specialist consults with the patient. CKHA’s Surgery Program surpassed the provincial annual improvement target of 85% by achieving 86% for the indicator Surgical Oncology – Referral to Consult. This means 86% of patients received a consult with a specialist within the target of 14 days of their referral date.
The quality of pathology reports is extremely important since cancer treatment decisions are based on the pathologists’ diagnosis – the medical specialty that examines tissues and cells to diagnose the type and severity of disease. The Pathology Post-Surgical Report Turnaround Time for All Disease Sites indicator is measured by the percentage of reports signed off by pathologists within 14 calendar days of the date of surgery. At CKHA, 97.6% of pathology reports were completed within the 14 calendar day timeframe – well above the provincial target of 85%.
CKHA earned most improved hospital in the province for the indicator Surgical Oncology Program: Decision to Treat to Treatment – the wait time from when a patient and surgeon decide to proceed with surgery to when the actual procedure is completed. For the 2015/16 year, 86% of patients were treated within the target of 14 days for all priority cases. Although the program did not achieve the provincial target of 90%, the organization looks forward to more improvement over the coming year to continue advancing cancer services within Chatham-Kent.
Cancer Care Ontario is the Ontario government’s primary advisor on cancer care in the province. The cancer system in Ontario is organized into Regional Cancer Programs (RCPs) that correlate with the province’s 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). RCPs are networks of healthcare providers, regional cancer centres, stakeholders and patient groups involved in providing cancer prevention, screening, and diagnostic and treatment services in each LHIN. The Erie St. Clair Regional Cancer Program oversees the quality and delivery of cancer services for the areas of Chatham-Kent, Sarnia-Lambton and Windsor-Essex. To learn more about the Erie St. Clair Regional Cancer Program, click here.
