Windsor Hospital realignment

This past July, the board of Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital (HDGH) and the board of Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) approved the transitional realignment plan for the Windsor hospitals.

It was shared in a joint communique from the hospitals indicating that effective October 1, 2013, WRH will be responsible for the governance and management of the programs and services on the Metropolitan and Ouellette campuses. HDGH will have a new name (Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare) and be responsible for the governance and management of the programs and services on the Tayfour campus and those off-site programs associated with the Tayfour campus. The exception is the Crisis Program that will continue to be governed and managed by HDGH.

It is important to note that programs and services are not changing location and that patients will continue to access each hospital campus the same way. As stated, for patients and families, October 1, 2013 is to be "business as usual" and their access to hospital health care services will not be changed as a result of this realignment.

The realignment plan was developed over five months under the direction of a Steering Committee* co-chaired by the two hospital Chief Executive Officers and through the work of seven working groups.

By realigning responsibility for programs and services through a new operating model the Windsor hospitals are well positioned to:

• Optimize capacity and re-balance activity;
• Explore operating efficiencies with a higher critical mass of activity;
• Explore opportunities for improved operating efficiency through economies of scale in administrative and support services;
• Improve coordination and consistency in service delivery;
• Facilitate best practices and model of care and standardization of both clinical and non-clinical processes and practices that have been shown to optimize the efficiency of acute care services;
• Adopt a consistent city-wide approach to patient quality and safety;
• Qualify for increased cancer funding;
• Establish a single professional staff structure (medical, dental, midwives) per hospital corporation;
• Establish a single unified professional staff, unified medical department and single Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) to facilitate improved inter-site access to clinical consultation and clinical technologies;
• Enable administration and professional staff to make day-to-day operational decisions and boards to govern with a vision to the future; and
• Commence the detailed planning required before the eventual move to a new single acute care site.

This change brings new naming conventions to our hospitals. Please note that the following should be adopted beginning October 1.