Dollars To Ease ER Wait Times

SooNews Wire for SooNews.ca
Thursday, July 29, 2010, 1:29PM

ORAZIETTI ANNOUNCES $1 MILLION TO FURTHER REDUCE LOCAL ER WAIT TIMES

McGuinty Government Increases Funding To Expand Health Care Program At Sault Area Hospital

Sault Ste. Marie – The McGuinty government is investing $1,005,200 to expand the Pay-For-Results Emergency Room (ER) health care program in order to further reduce wait times at Sault Area Hospital (SAH), David Orazietti, MPP announced today.

“We are making strategic investments in programs that reward hospitals for decreasing emergency room wait times in order to help residents of Sault Ste. Marie access the care they need closer to home,” said Orazietti. “The expansion of this important initiative, which includes the Sault Area Hospital, demonstrates our government’s continuing commitment to improve front-line health care services for local residents while also implementing accountability measures that will benefit patients.”

Ontario is expanding its successful Pay-for-Results program and giving 4 hospitals in the North East Local Health Integration Network more than $3 million in Pay-for-Results funding to implement initiatives that will help reduce ER wait times.

To reach the required target, hospitals will use the funds to:

· Hire geriatric emergency nurses and admission nurses to expand staffing as part of emergency department teams

· Reorganize emergency department teams to improve the work flow

· Hire patient transportation services to assist with patient flow in and out of the emergency department

Pay-for-Results rewards hospitals for meeting specific ER wait time reduction targets. This year, through a $100 million investment, the government is expanding the Pay for Results program to an additional 25 hospitals across the province, bringing the total number of participating hospitals to 71. All of them have committed to reducing ER wait times by 15 per cent over the course of the year. Since it was created in 2008, the program has already helped the 46 participating hospitals reduce ER wait times by 23 per cent.

Other McGuinty government investments to strengthen front-line health care in Sault Ste. Marie include:

· Ontario health care funding increased by 57% from $29 billion to $47 billion

· $408 million to construct new Sault Area Hospital

· $31 million in additional funding to SAH for patient service enhancements, including $13.2 million to reduce wait times and $3.7 million for new medical equipment

· $7.3 million for new Algoma Public Health Building

· $5.9 million for home care and community support services

· $3.0 million to reduce Emergency Room Wait Times in North Eastern Ontario

· $2.8 million toward construction of new Algoma Residential Community Hospice (ARCH)

· $2.2 million for EMS Response Centre

· Opened the Northern Ontario School of Medicine

· 38% increase in physician supply by 2011

· Increased the number of International Medical Graduates spaces from 90-200

· Hired 10,000 more nurses

· 900,000 more Ontarians have access to a family doctor

· Funded 150 new drugs including 39 cancer drugs

· Constructing a Nurse-led Practitioner Clinic at Sault College

QUICK FACTS

· Ontario now reports all surgical and ER wait times online at Ontario.ca/waittimes

· There are 163 emergency rooms in the province, with 2.8 million people making 5.25 million visits to these ERs each year.

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