Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) is taking steps in an effort to reduce wait times in the Emergency Department.
Hospital president and CEO David Musyj says a major problem contributing to wait times is that after 6 p.m., seven days a week and especially on holidays, the Emergency Department is the only place to go.
"We are trying to work with the government and some community agencies in order to extend some of the local urgent care clinics well into the evening hours, to 11 p.m. or midnight 7 days a week, including holidays. And we have some community partners who are willing to do that and we are advocating on their behalf to be supported."
He says proposals have been sent to the province and the hospital is waiting to hear back from the government on that initiative.
Last month, the hospital introduced the "Paediatric Diversion Program", which assists paediatric patients who attend the Emergency Department during certain time periods to receive more timely care.
The service is operated by a paediatric speciality team.
Musyj says the service continues to be available on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Met Campus.
"Paediatric patients who come to the Emergency Department get pulled up in to the paediatric area as long as their case is not an emergency and that's been working well over the last month or so. That will continue over the winter months and hopefully we will actually increase that as we move past the winter months and into early spring. So that's our plans with respect to that."
Another issue contributing to wait times in the Emergency Department is not having enough doctors on shift.
Musyj says through an agreement between the Ontario Medical Association, WRH physicians and the province, the hospital is allotted a certain number of funded physician hours for the Emergency Department.
"The good thing about it is we've had some flexibility with some of the payments, for the first time in my lifetime here at the hospital, to provide some incentive based payments. And we've seen our schedule starting October 1, and most likely through the winter months, that we are full of those hours, meaning we have those hours, and actually then some."
He says even though the incentive based payment initiative just began, he says it's been working well so far, and they've seen some improvements.
"But again we won't really see a lot of improvements until there are other options available for patients and families in the later evening hours, especially on weekends and holidays, for people to have an option other than the Emergency Department, especially when they don't have an emergency."
The hospital says it saw roughly 95,000 Emergency Department visits between April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023 with with approximately 10,000 to 12,000 of those being paediatric patients.