The acute care hospitals in Windsor and Leamington are already sharing multiple top leadership roles in a new plan that officially began this month aimed at saving $2 million a year.<\/p>\n
Kristin Kennedy, now the CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital and Erie Shores HealthCare, said officials have so far counted 17 top positions the organizations will share.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we\u2019re looking at expanding as vacancies come up to see how we can integrate additional shared positions as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kennedy gave Erie Shores HealthCare board members an update Tuesday on the \u201cshared CEO model\u201d that officially began Sept. 1. The boards of both hospitals announced in July they had approved moving to the new model, which is similar to the approach some other Ontario hospitals have taken.<\/p>\n
Each organization is still accountable to their own board of directors.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 4, the Windsor and Leamington hospitals started expanding shared leadership in areas including patient experience, risk and privacy, and human resources.<\/p>\n
The model officially took full effect on Sept. 1. The plan is to achieve the $2 million in annual savings solely through sharing leadership positions without cutting services.<\/p>\n
Kennedy previously served as president and CEO of Erie Shores before moving into the same position in January at Windsor Regional. She now holds the title at both organizations.<\/p>\n
Katelyn Dryden, who became interim president and CEO of Erie Shores after Kennedy\u2019s initial departure, is now the chief financial officer for both hospitals.<\/p>\n
The hospitals also now share a director of Patient Experience.<\/p>\n
Kennedy said the shared leadership idea came up locally when Erie Shores started looking for her replacement after she was hired in Windsor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also know that many of the hospitals across the province have had some financial challenges based on many factors,\u201d said Kennedy. \u201cThis was an opportunity to look outside the box at how we could come to the table and save money collectively and be able to put it back into deficits, frontline staff and patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said senior executive teams have been begun shared leadership meetings to talk about issues including risk management, financial stewardship, patient flow and access, and regional planning.<\/p>\n
Kennedy said chief nursing executives from both hospitals are also collaborating on several issues including clinical best practices, quality oversight and staff engagement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been pleasantly surprised even before Sept.1 at how organically people were reaching out and working together across programs and services on their own, with no strategy really put out there yet,\u201d said Kennedy.<\/p>\n
Aside from some pre-existing practices, the organizations said patients will continue to receive care in their own communities.<\/p>\n
The hospitals already had a diversion system in place where paramedics would take patients with less severe issues to the Leamington emergency room when Windsor was overburdened. Leamington also regularly transfers patients to Windsor for specialty care.<\/p>\n
Kennedy said the flow of those patients between Windsor and Erie Shores already appears to be \u201cmore seamless.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have always been some challenges or roadblocks in repatriating patients back to their home hospital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow some of those barriers have been removed and we have better communication and engagement between the two organizations, so that we\u2019re opening beds in the right organization and able to get people back to their home hospital in a timelier and more effective way.\u201d<\/p>\n