Hard work pays off, according to the head of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.
Lori Marshall, president and CEO of CKHA, said the alliance teamed up with other medium-sized hospitals across the province to lobby the government to update its funding model for hospitals.
The Ontario government announced last week it was increasing funding levels for these hospitals by 1.5 per cent. For the CKHA, that translates to an additional $1.73 million annually.
Marshall said the old funding model was broken.
“Previous funding formulae have really much more favoured hospitals that provide high volume of care,” she said. “Funding formulas in past years have not favoured medium-sized hospitals. We are not able to create the economies of scale that many larger hospitals can do.”
Marshall said regardless of patient volumes, a hospital has fixed costs it has to address.
“You still have to have the lights on and a certain amount of base staff, and have to be able to provide the services to the community when they need them. When you are a smaller size, it’s more difficult to do that in a very cost-effective manner,” she said.
Marshall said there is no specific destination for the additional funding.
“It’s really about supporting clinical services. This really provides a core of sustainability for us. It gives us the ability to respond to the communities’ needs,” she said. “The one thing we will be exploring is something we suggested in our Ontario Health Team application – the creation of a virtual unit. That would provide more care with partnerships out in the community rather than in hospitals.”
Marshall said the added funds also give the alliance better flexibility to address funding for seasonal surging – where spikes in illnesses such as the flu lead to an increase in hospital visits and bed usage. The alliance counters by temporarily hiring additional health-care personnel.
Regionally, Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital’s budget will also see a $1.15-million increase, while Four Counties Health Services’ budget will rise by $90,000.
Across Ontario, the government is investing an additional $68 million to support small- and medium-sized hospitals. This new investment is on top of the $384 million more that Ontario’s hospitals received this year as part of the province’s 2019 budget.
This funding includes a province-wide increase in funding of one per cent for 66 small-sized hospitals, 1.5 per cent for 23 medium-sized and multi-site hospitals and targeted funding to assist with unique situations and historical funding challenges.
