The Emergency Department at Erie Shores HealthCare is ranked 11th out of 74 emergency rooms across the province.
That's an improvement of 23 spots in the last two years. In 2017, the hospital was ranked 34th and in 2018 it was ranked 18th.
Hospital officials said they have implemented a number of programs over the last 18 months to achieve this improvement.
"We have standardized flow throughout the emergency room, so standard practice through triage right through to admission onto a floor," said Chief Nursing Executive Kristin Kennedy.
Kennedy said their greatest achievement has been implementing the rapid assessment zone. A place where low acuity patients, who probably could have gone to a clinic or family physician can be seen quickly.
The improvement comes during a time when the hospital has seen an expansion in its catchment area. During the same time frame, ER visits and inpatient admissions have increased by over 20 per cent.
The Pay for Results program with the Ministry of Health and Long Term care provides this ranking of participating emergency departments. The program then provides funding for programs to improve emergency departments based on that ranking.
"We have some ideas in place. We're looking to see how we can facilitate a physician or nurse practitioner in the ER seeing patients immediately when they arrive at our triage desk," said Kennedy.
Kennedy said they are not aware of how much funding they will receive based on this round of assessments.
