Hospital Improvement Plan Implementation

Niagara Health System

• Developing the Plan
  • About HIP
    • Why a HIP?
    • Questions and Answers
    • Case for Change
    • Quality Care
    • Financial Pressures
    • Factors Driving Change
    • How Can We Change?
    • NHS at a Glance
    • Better Ways of Delivering Care
  • Background
    • Key Messages
    • National Trends in Health Care
    • Niagara’s Population
      • Geographic Overview
      • Travel Maps
      • Population Projections
      • Population Characteristics
      • Income and Employment
      • Health Determinants & Practices
      • Health Status, Life Expectancy
      • Hospitalization
      • Prevalence of Chronic Conditions
      • Disease Prevalence Maps
  • FAQs
    • The Hospital Improvement Plan
    • Emergency Care in Fort Erie/Port Colborne
    • Women’s & Children’s Health
  • Vision / Plan
    • HIP Addendum – December 2008
    • HIP Addendum & Site Charts – November 2008
    • Kitts Review & Recommendations – October 2008
    • Consultation Summary Report – October 2008
    • Draft Hospital Improvement Plan – July 2008
    • Health Experts Say …
      • Centres of Excellence
      • Emergency Services
      • Women’s and Children’s Health
    • Vision Details
      • Emergency Services
      • Women’s and Children’s Health
• Implementing the HIP
  • Implementation Plan – Year 1
  • Early Opportunities
    • Surgical Program
    • Medicine Program
    • Emergency Services
    • Maternal/Child Program
    • Addictions & Mental Health
  • Site & Services – Now and by 2013
  • Planning for Changes
  • Effective Use of Patient Care Equipment
  • HIP Implementation Steering Committee
• Stakeholder Relations
  • Community Information
  • Community Advisory Forums
  • Chair’s Message to C.A.F.
  • Vice Chair’s Address
• Contact
• News
• Videos
• Contact

Surgical Program

Surgical Program (Operative/Peri-Operative)

A major focus of the HIP is improving quality through the creation of centres of excellence. By 2013, surgical specialties will be located at either Niagara Falls, St. Catharines or Welland sites, bringing together a critical mass or high volume of patients. This will ensure that we can provide clinical competency and effective use of our human resources. By grouping the same types of surgery together, we can avoid buying multiple sets of costly surgical equipment.

Consolidating surgical services is being driven by quality much more than cost savings. Because monitoring performance and measuring quality is key to the HIP implementation, each program has identified a set of performance indicators, for tracking on an ongoing basis. Surgical performance indicators will centre around improving wait times for patients, standardizing operating procedures and reducing readmission rates to hospital.

We are pursuing any and all opportunities to continue providing outpatient pre- and post-surgical clinics at all sites.

Ophthalmology – Eye surgery procedures, including cataract removal, are mostly day surgeries. As an initial step to create a single centre of excellence for Ophthalmology, the service moved from 5 sites to 2 sites May/09 – at Welland Hospital Site and Ontario Street Site in St. Catharines.

Welland’s surgical suites will receive renovations and some new surgical equipment over the next 4 years to manage all of the region’s 5,800 cases per year, and by 2013 will be the centre of excellence.

Plastic Surgery (specialized face/hand reconstruction) – In May/09, we created 2 centres of excellence in this field, located at Greater Niagara General Site and St. Catharines General Site. These these cities have the highest volumes of emergency department patients requiring this specialized surgery. Welland cases are treated at Greater Niagara General Site, which has the capacity to treat the few additional cases per year.

Dental Surgery – Greater Niagara General Site has the highest volumes for dental/oral surgery and sufficient expertise of staff, so by 2013, all dental/oral surgery will be consolidated at Niagara Falls.

As an interim step, in May/09, dental surgical cases from Fort Erie, Port Colborne and Welland moved to Niagara Falls.

Day Surgery Closure at Fort Erie and Port Colborne – With the movement of ophthalmology to a centre of excellence and the low volume of day surgery cases in recent years at these sites, the surgical suites closed in May/09.

As part of this change, orthopedic, endoscopy and cysto procedures moved from Port Colborne and Douglas Memorial sites to Welland and Greater Niagara sites.