NEWS RELEASE
August 23, 2010 

Brockville General Hospital Continues to Lower Wait Times

Brockville—Brockville General Hospital posted a Spring 2010 quarterly report to the province with significantly lower wait times for Emergency and surgical procedures.

Public reporting of wait times is part of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care initiative called “Ontario Wait Times Strategy.” Originally developed in 2004 to monitor and manage provincial wait times for cancer surgery, cardiac procedures, cataract surgery, hip and knee replacements, and MRI/CT scans, the initiative has grown to encompass wait times for all Ontario surgical procedures and ER response.

For the Spring 2010 quarterly report to the Ministry, Brockville General Hospital (BGH) has posted wait times well under the provincial targets for cataract surgery, hip and knee replacements, and CT scans. Wait times for these are defined as how long it takes from diagnosis to procedure.  Knee replacement wait times at BGH have been dropping for two years, now coming in at 120 days—60 days under the provincial target of 180. Hip replacements have followed the same pattern, with the recent posting showing a wait time average of 85 days, well under the provincial target of 180 days. Cataract surgery fares even better with an average wait time of 75 days as compared to the provincial target of 180. Priority Two CT scans have a provincial target of two days, with BGH posting an average wait of only one day. In all of these cases, BGH also maintains wait times lower than the average for the South East LHIN.

The second wait time target is Emergency Department response, with the wait time period defined as the length of time from patient registration or triage to when that patient is either discharged or admitted to hospital. With high acuity patients, BGH meets and surpasses the current provincial target of eight hours with a Spring 2010 posting of seven hours average wait time. The SE LHIN average is now 10 hours, with a provincial average of 12. BGH has reported a drop in these wait times for four consecutive quarters.


Margriet deBruyn, BGH Director of Critical Care, credits the addition of physician assistants (PA) and a nurse practitioner (NP) to the ER as major factors in the improvements in Emergency treatment at BGH, as well as the continuing efforts of the ER physicians and staff nurses. With an average of 70 patients per day presenting at the Emergency Department, having an NP take about 30 of these cases makes a substantial contribution to treatment workload. Also, BGH was one of the hospitals to receive partial funding for the Physician Assistant Pilot Program, and successfully integrated the new position into the ER. In light of the positive results, BGH decided to invest in the PA positions from its global budget, and continue the service.

While low-acuity wait times remain a challenge, BGH is maintaining provincial standard wait times of just over four hours.


For more information contact:

Maggie Wheeler Communications Officer BROCKVILLE GENERAL HOSPITAL 613-345-5649 Ext. 1-1504

Healthy people – Outstanding Care

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