By Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Chatham Voice
Extensive engagement led to the July 24 unveiling of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance strategic plan for 2025-2030.
With a purpose statement of “our focus is you,” the five-year plan has six objectives with concrete plans to achieve each goal.
Compassion is a common thread throughout the plan, including the values statement which reads: “As your community hospital, we value easy-to-access health care rooted in equity and kindness.”
According to Adam Topp, CKHA president and CEO, some 5,000 responses were received during the engagement process from both internal and external sources. That included 1,733 surveys, five focus groups, 22 community partner discussions, as well as individual feedback.
The overwhelming response, he said, is that people said they want to be able to access health care easily.
“That came out in all the various comments from people,” Topp said, noting kindness was a common thread.
“That’s what our community said, in terms of when they come here, they want to be treated in an equitable manner and with kindness.”
Calling it a “grass roots” approach, Topp said a committee was formed at the start of the process in November 2024 and front-line staff were heavily involved in 93 internal engagement opportunities.
“The idea there was to really get a grasp and input in terms of the organization,” Topp said. “What they wanted their hospital to be and what they wanted their values to be.”
Engagement went on for five months, he said, with the plan going to the CKHA board of directors for approval in May.
Not a fan of lengthy strategic plans that “sit on a shelf,” Topp said the one-page document will “feed the organization,” providing structure for its objectives.
“We wanted to make sure it was built from the engagement we went through,” he added. “We want to enrich each person’s experience at every interaction. Coming here and getting good health care is certainly what you want to achieve, but while you’re here, we want your experience to be fulfilling and to be a positive one.”
Timely access is another plank of the plan, Topp said, noting the hospital will look at ways to address waitlists.
Completing the Wallaceburg campus re-development and beginning work on the Chatham campus are another of the plan’s objectives, Topp said, explaining some departments such as the chemotherapy area and the emergency room are at capacity.
“We need to start that process,” he said, noting some sectors are “busting at the seams. We need some redevelopment here and if we don’t start thinking about it now, everything will be busting at the seams. We know that over the next 10 years, we’re going to need 60 more acute care beds to take care of our population.”
Topp said the planning process has begun and will continue over the next decade, as more space will be need to meet the population’s demand as the community ages.
“This is a vision,” CHKA board of directors’ chairperson Deb Crawford said at the launch, “that’s going to move us forward in the next five years.”
Crawford pointed out the plan is simple, not a “top down” document.
“We are a community hospital and we’re very happy this plan reflects that,” she stressed, noting it paves the way for a “positive future” for the hospital and community.
“We really feel this plan is grounded in the voice of Chatham-Kent,” Crawford said.
A total of 80 per cent of CKHA’s patients come from Chatham-Kent, and in 2024 the 200-bed hospital dealt with approximately 200,000 patient visits.
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