During the regular February Board meeting of the Middlesex Hospital Alliance (MHA) Board of Directors, Dr. Jon Dreyer, Chief of Staff at the FCHS site, provided the Board with a presentation on his role as the South West LHIN (SW LHIN) Emergency Department (ED) Lead.
The SW LHIN covers a large portion of Southwestern Ontario stretching from Lake Erie to the Bruce Peninsula and includes the Counties of Bruce, Grey, Huron, Perth, Middlesex, Elgin and Oxford. The population of approximately 1 million people is served by one of the 27 emergency departments, each providing 24-hour emergency service.
Dr. Dreyer’s role as the SW LHIN ED Lead is to provide leadership and insight in advancing the provincial ED Strategy at the local level and to establish a network of ED leaders across the LHIN to share best practices, discuss ED coverage from both physician and nursing perspectives, champion system improvements in delivery of emergency services and discuss opportunities for improvement. He also sits on a Provincial Committee with the ED Leads from the 14 LHINs in Ontario. This Committee provides a forum to the leaders to engage and discuss common issues and opportunities for improvement.
Dr. Dreyer has visited several ED sites and met many of the ED leaders across the LHIN to better understand the difficulties emergency departments are currently facing. There are common themes raised by all emergency departments including physician and nursing coverage, access to some services and repatriation pressures, to name a few.
The Board raised several questions and expressed appreciation to Dr. Dreyer for taking on the task of the SW LHIN ED Lead. It is apparent that collaboration between the Provincial Government, the LHINs and the Hospital Boards will be necessary to address the common concerns experienced in the emergency departments across the LHIN.
The Board also heard that Nancy Maltby, Chief Operating Officer, for the MHA is Chair of the Chief Nursing Executive (CNE) Group for the SW LHIN. This group discusses issues related to patient care and identifies solutions for enhancing patient access to seamless transfer between hospitals. Currently, the group is working on a common discharge policy across the SW LHIN.
The Chair acknowledged with appreciation the work of the Senior Team and their interest and involvement in Regional initiatives to ensure that service is maintained and enhanced for patients of the MHA.