The success of this seasonal care clinic between November and March has local health officials looking at ways to have it return next fall, with some improvements.
The clinic operated from the third week of November 2023 until March 8 of this year, run by Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) staff and local paramedics.
It was intended to provide care to the public if they did not have a family doctor or nurse practitioner or could not be seen in a timely manner by a health-care professional during the seasonal surge of cold, flu and respiratory illness.
Caen Suni, vice-president of clinical programs and operations for CKHA, said nearly 1,600 patients utilized the clinic, which was a portable building that was set up adjacent to the emergency department in Chatham.
Of the patients that utilized the clinic, Suni said nearly 400 provided feedback.
“Ninety-two per cent graded their experience as excellent,” he said. “There was a rapid ability to provide care to patients who needed it.”
Wait times were generally between 30-45 minutes, much lower than a typical wait time for a person with the same symptoms would generally encounter in the emergency department, which Suni said could be anywhere from 3.5 to seven hours.
“We’ve been saving thousands of hours of staff and patient time,” he told The Chatham Voice in early February.
The people who operated the clinic will meet to debrief on how the clinic performed and how to make improvements for the future.
Suni said one thing they noticed was that the clinic closed a bit too early.
“The clinic closed on the eve of March Break. We did see a spike in number,” he said of emergency department visits after the seasonal care clinic closed. “There are virtues in extending it past March Break, if possible.”
All hospitals in Chatham Kent need to strictly practice triage. I had 3 broken ribs waiting many hours and they took an old woman first who said her thumb felt funny and admitted that she really didn’t need to be there.