| Ontario Investing In Shorter ER Wait Times
Ontario is giving the province’s most challenged
emergency rooms (ERs) incentives to improve patient satisfaction and
reduce ER wait times.
The $55 million pay-for-results program will give 46
hospitals funding incentives to meet specific targets and reduce the
time patients spend in the ER. Last year, 23 hospitals participated and
were able to reduce the amount of time non-urgent patients spent in
their ERs by 29 percent.
The expanded pay-for-results program is part of the
comprehensive $82 million ER Wait Times Strategy aimed at improving the
efficiency and performance of hospital ERs across the province. Other
highlights include:
- $5 million for dedicated nurses to care for patients who arrive at ERs by ambulance to ease ambulance offload delays.
- $6.5 million for community projects to help patients
with chronic or palliative conditions receive care in the community and
avoid frequent ER visits.
- $7.5 million for an ER process improvement program
that includes coaching teams and tools to help select hospitals improve
processes and patient flow in ERs.
- $4.1 million to have physician assistants work in ERs.
- $4 million for public and partner education to help
Ontarians identify the healthcare options in their communities –
such as walk in clinics or family health teams – that are
appropriate alternatives to ERs.
"I’m pleased to be able to continue working with
our hospitals to reduce ER wait times. These investments are targeted
directly at providing timely, high quality emergency care for
patients," said David Caplan, minister of health and long-term care.
"Improving ER times involves making these comprehensive
investments each year to ensure the most efficient processes are in
place to deliver the best care to patients. Hospitals and Local Health
Integration Networks have been showing strong leadership and we look
forward to lower ER times and improved patient satisfaction," said Dr.
Alan Hudson, provincial executive lead, access to services and wait
times.
"The pay-for-results program has been a tremendously
successful lever to engage hospitals and LHINs in seriously addressing
long ER waiting times, and is a key part of the government’s
ER/ALC strategy. The expansion of this program is another very positive
step towards improving care for ER patients in Ontario," said Michael
Schull, ER strategy provincial lead.
There are 163 ERs in the province, with 2.8 million people making 5.25 million visits to these ERs each year.
Address: Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care,
Service Ontario InfoLine, B-1b114, MacDonald Block, 900 Bay St.
Toronto, ON M7A1W3, Canada; (866) 532-3161, www.health.gov.on.ca.
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