LAURIE WEIR
Michael Cohen, president and chief executive officer of Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital, presented the hospital’s achievements to Smiths Falls town council on Sept. 23.
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” Cohen said, noting they reduced fall-related injuries by over 35 per cent. “We went from being at an unacceptably high rate to below industry standards.”
Cohen highlighted staffing challenges, particularly recruitment in health care, but said, “We have filled all our full-time nursing vacancies up to this point.”
The next hurdle is part-time vacancies, as they aim to eliminate costly agency nurses by year’s end.
He mentioned respiratory illnesses like respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), flu, and COVID-19, which have led to masking protocols in patient-facing areas. He also touched on the ongoing shortage of long-term care beds, saying, “Hospitals remain the stopgap for other areas in the healthcare system.”
Despite challenges, Cohen praised their Emergency Room coverage at both sites. Additionally, the hospital hired a midwife to replace an obstetrician transferring to Toronto, as they are looking for a second midwife to complement their obstetrics team.
Coun. Peter McKenna asked about birth rates at the hospital. Cohen reported that births have decreased from 300 to 325 pre-COVID to around 80 to 90 fewer per year but expects numbers to stabilize in the high 200s. Once fully staffed, Cohen said, they should reach 400 births annually. He added, “We need to be recruiting in the next year or two, or there will be risk of burnout.”
Coun. Dawn Quinn inquired about long-term care bed shortages and how they could help alleviate this. Cohen said to encourage developers interested in building long-term care homes to come to Smiths Falls, noting, “It is still a very challenging environment with the way that long-term care is funded.”
Quinn also raised concerns about long wait times for diagnostic services. Cohen said this has been an issue since before COVID-19, and even with a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) service, the waitlist was full within weeks of opening.
Cohen urged continued financial support from the town to help fund a digital transformation set to launch this fall. The town previously committed $171,341 to the hospital’s core capital campaign.
Mayor Shawn Pankow highlighted the town’s ongoing capital campaign contributions, totaling $1.4 to $1.6 million since 2017. Cohen acknowledged the financial need, citing a backlog of equipment replacements requiring $1.4 million to $1.6 million annually, excluding the digital transformation.
