THUNDER BAY -- The emergency department at the city’s hospital is being recognized for having the lowest wait times in the province.
On Thursday, the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre announced they were officially recognized by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for having the lowest length of stay for the emergency department within a teaching hospital-community hospital in 2013.
Length of stay includes the time of triage or registration to either being admitted to the hospital or discharged and the Science Centre’s 90th percentile wait time – the wait time for the 90th person out of 100 to arrive at the ER – is 2.2 hours. The provincial average is 3.5 hours.
Medical director of the ICU, trauma and emergency services Dave Mutrie said while the 90th percentile wait time is 2.2. hours, the average length of stay is less than two hours.
“I’m sure a lot of (people) have negative feelings about emerge, but they have to understand compared to our peers in the province, we stand head and shoulders above any of our peers as far as our performance in providing timely care,” he said.
The hospital has been involved in a Ministry of Health sponsored program to reduce wait times in emergency for the past six years and Mutrie said they have consistently tried different things to improve access to care for patients.
“We’re really seeing some positive outcomes from that,” he said.
The hospital receiving provincial recognition from ministry is a big accomplishment, Mutrie added.
“Everybody is working very hard. On a day-to-day basis you don’t get a lot of positive feedback. I think for the staff, this shows them that globally while we may be challenged on a day-to-day basis, we’re providing a level of service other institutions can only dream to provide,” he said.
In addition to the province’s Pay for Results program that saw hospitals receive more funding to help reduce wait times in the ER, the hospital also worked with Superior North EMS on a number of initiatives including the creation of an offload delay registered nurse position and a rapid assessment zone to free up more stretcher capacity for EMS patients.
North West Local Health Integration Network’s senior director of health system performance Brian Ktytor said it’s the collaboration between health-care providers in the city and the region that brought forth the recognition.
“Any change, transformation that happens in health care, no one person or one organization can do it on their own. It has to be a collaboration,” he said, adding it’s difficult to create such a change in the health-care system.
“The leadership, the courage, the skill that the medical staff, the support staff and administration of Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre has showed is absolutely incredible,” said Ktytor.
