We understand why some folks may be skeptical of the rebuilding process of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, but the progress is more than just a little tangible.
After years of mismanagement and ultimately a dysfunctional governance situation where the hospital boards could no longer work together, the province had to step in. With health care, when the system fails, lives can be lost. That’s just not tolerable.
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An outside auditor’s review of the progress made from the time the province appointed supervisor Rob Devitt until February was eye opening in several ways. First off, KPMG’s report showed the alliance was a huge mess under the old regime, bigger than what Devitt and interim CEO Ken Deane actually thought.
More importantly, however, is how far the new leadership has brought the alliance in the past seven months.
KPMG assessed core corporate controls in areas of ethics and values, governance, human resources, general information technology, finance and strategic planning and budgeting.
The starting point was, as mentioned, abysmal. In 10 of 15 charted categories, the CKHA received the lowest possible marks. Not one area received a thumbs up.
Seven months later, the auditor handed out no red marks, but instead gave out passing grades in nine categories and top marks in two.
Again, the progress is tangible.
Devitt and Deane have stressed there are no plans to close the Sydenham District Hospital, or the emergency department – the latter being a huge bone of contention that ultimately led to the stalemate at the hospital board level. In fact, the alliance has invested in support programs such as respiratory therapy to augment emergency department services.
The distrust in local health care by the public has left some people with the inability to actually hear the pledge by the alliance: two hospitals, two emergency departments.
According to the CKHA powers that be, that is the case.
As for the future, notably how the alliance is governed, Devitt is looking hard at this. It’s clear what we had didn’t work: three boards all elected in different manners. What will likely come out of this is a one-board format, with members having the needs of overall health care throughout the municipality on their minds, not the needs of one hospital over another.
As Devitt and Deane have said, this isn’t rocket science. It’s just common sense.
