Two north shore hospitals are now operating as one.
As of April 1, the Wilson Memorial General Hospital in Marathon and McCausland Hospital and Wilkes Terrace Long Term Care facility in Terrace Bay have amalgamated under the North of Superior Healthcare Group.
Adam Brown, the North of Superior Healthcare Group chief executive officer, said Marathon is a 300-kilometre drive from Thunder Bay, which can be problematic elderly patients or those without vehicles, and makes it particularly important to ensure the hospitals have a secure long-term future.
“Getting to Thunder Bay is a challenge. There’s not great bus service and not everybody has a vehicle,” Brown said. “Some health care needs will not be met if we don’t have those services offered locally.”
Together, the two hospitals receive 10,000 emergency room visits per year and 15,000 in-patient days per year between the long-term care facility, in-patient beds and chronic beds.
The amalgamation means there will be administrative and senior management teams will be integrated to eliminate redundancies and find cost savings. They had been operating under a joint venture agreement since 2008 and had an informal partnership since 2013.
“We can focus on the patient. Any efficiencies we can find in our operations, particularly in our back office section of our workplace, will be repatriated to the front of the shop for direct care for our patients,” Brown said.
“It allows us to take those monies we’ve saved and put it back into our nurses, put it back into our physiotherapists and our lab folks. The folks that really matter to the patients.”
Brown said a primary goal of the amalgamation is sustainability of services, preserving initiatives such as the oncology program and perhaps expanding others, such as their colonoscopy program.
The hospitals will also mobilize services and staff to bring care to the patient rather than make the patient travel to seek treatment.
North West Local Health Integration Network chief executive officer Laura Kokocinski said there are other examples of small town facilities working together.
She pointed to the Emo, Rainy River and Fort Frances hospitals working under one incorporation as an example.
“One of the roles of health service providers is to identify integration opportunities and to work with the LHIN to move those integration initiatives forward,” she said.
