Chatham-Kent residents made more than 61,000 visits to emergency rooms in Chatham and Wallaceburg during the last 12 months and with each one, the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance went deeper into the red.
Figures obtained from the CKHA show the Grand Ave. campus carried the bulk of the load with more than 44,000 visits for the fiscal period ended March 31 while the Sydenham campus recorded just under 17,000.
According to the provincial funding model, the Alliance is paid $5,455 for each “weighted visit” while it costs between $6,200 and $7,200 to fund the emergency department for each such occurrence.
Alliance Chief Operating Officer Sarah Padfield explained that under provincial funding formulas, each ER visit is weighted according to its severity.
“A weighted ER visit is essentially the way we are able to equalize the visits based on complexity and resource intensity,” she said.
A patient with a multi trauma condition could count for .8 of a weighted visit while someone with a cough or sore throat could count for considerably less.
“The ranking is based on the amount of resources needed to treat a patient,” she said. “It’s important because it creates a way to make an apples to apples comparison of emergency department activity.”
The number of weighted visits in 2015/16 was 2,418, down from 2,614 in 2013/14 and 2,599 in 2014/15.
“We’re 31 per cent higher on a cost-based variance to funding,” she said.
“The high cost based variance (30%) means that we are providing the number of expected ED visits at a cost that is 30% higher than the amount we are being funded. There are multiple reasons for this, including the fact we are running 2 departments in 2 different sites – a factor for which the funding formula does not take into account.”
The information came to light as the alliance struggles with the future of the Sydenham Campus.
120 visits per day ? seems like they need to do a little triage and send some of these scratches and bruises to clinics ,so that emergencies will be just that, Emergencies !