HSN emergency wait times on par with province, hospital officials say

The message this week at Health Sciences North's (HSN) annual general meeting (AGM) was mostly a 'rosy' outlook from its president and CEO Dominic Giroux, who highlighted the hospital's achievements from the past year.

"HSN was recognized for an eighth consecutive year among Canada's top 40 research hospitals. Our regional cancer program ranks fourth on quality improvement indicators among Ontario's 14th regional cancer programs and HSNRI achieved in 2021/2022 a record $13.6 million in revenues," Giroux said.

It's a big achievement for a hospital, which like many in the province, has been working to stay afloat among the challenges of COVID-19.

Surgical wait lists are growing, but even still, progress is being made.

According to Giroux, surgical wait times are back to 91 per cent of pre-pandemic surgical activity, that's compared to 85 per cent provincially and 75 per cent when you look at other northern Ontario hospitals.

"HSN performs at or better than the Ontario average on 13 out of 19 key indicators tracked by CIHI -- the Canadian Institute for Health Information -- and those indicators are related to access, person-centredness, appropriateness, effectiveness of care, safety and efficiency," he said.

"In 2021/2022, our average wait times in the emergency department for first assessment by a doctor or low-urgency patients not admitted or high-urgency patients not-admitted were all at or better than the provincial average."

According to Health Quality Ontario, patients waited on average, in April, roughly 1.9 hours to be first seen by a doctor, which is on par with the provincial average.

The only other major hospital in the region to beat HSN was the Timmins and District Hospital, where patients wait an average of an hour. At Sault Area Hospital, it was 2.2 hours and North Bay Regional Hospital was 2.3 hours.

But while there was a lot to celebrate, Giroux said they can't rest on their laurels. There is always work to be done and room for improvement.

"Our patient experience survey results slipped in 2021/2022, the proportion of patients scanned within target times for CT and MRI is below the provincial average, despite major improvements made in CT wait times in the first two quarters of the year," he said.

The hospital president used much of his time to talk about boosting the hospital's capital campaign. Giroux has repeatedly said in the past that HSN was built too small and the AGM was no exception.

"We were pleased to see in the 2022 Ontario budget that the province is committing $40 billion over the next 10 years in hospital infrastructure. This is $10 billion more than committed in the 2021 budget," he said.

"We look forward to advance in these conversations with the Ministry of Health in the coming months to secure a $5-million Stage 2 planning grant for our capital development for more inpatient beds and more space for mental health and addictions and NEO kids."

Giroux made reference to the fact that it was the hospital's 25th anniversary since merging into one entity. HSN was built with many thinking it would become a one-site facility.

It now operates today out of 14 different locations.

The hospital, in the meantime, will continue its recruiting drive as it looks to fill a number of positions.

"Northerners know that HSN was built too small," said Giroux.

"Eleven new family medicine physicians and 25 new specialists have been successfully recruited to Sudbury throughout 2021-2022 thanks to a partnership between HSN, the City of Greater Sudbury and the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce," said hospital Chief of Staff Dr. John Fenton.

"Three colleagues from the Ottawa Hospital and Windsor Regional Hospital completed on onsite review back in March 2022. The external review spoke highly of the quality of care provided at HSN and throughout the region," Fenton added of one of their reviews.

Since 2018, HSN has secured more than $36-million in provincial capital funding as well as operating funds and an additional 198 temporary hospital beds.