Although he has just completed his fundraising running marathon, Brad Hilker, president and CEO of Campbellford Memorial Hospital (CMH) is not slowing down as he now takes on the new challenges for staff and physicians as they head into 2016.
The year-long “Hilker Hustle” saw him run 1930 km (930 km beyond his goal) and put $3,020 towards the purchase of priority medical equipment.
“I think it’s going to be an exciting year. There’s lots of change happening. We want to be focused on our patients and their families,” he said with enthusiasm.
Running through (pun intended) a list of past successes with a clear vision of the future Hilker talked about the ongoing need to change with the times.
“Increased complexity and acuity of patients is putting pressure on resources at the hospital,” he noted.
To handle the increased pressure, due in part to an aging boomer population, the hospital will continue to bring in specialists for consultation at the hospital here.
As well as bringing in specialists to clinics at the hospital, something that will continue, there will now be two patient care advisors.
“We’re starting to work with patient advocates. It is going to be good to get their perspective,” noted Hilker.
As well the hospital will continue to make progress setting up electronic health records.
“In our case now when a patient is in the hospital there’s a lot of documentation by nurses etc. done on paper,” Hilker noted.
He expects it will take two or three years to complete the project but when it is done physicians and caregivers will have the information they need electronically.
“It’s about time we got to that stage and the ministry is trying to come out with recommendations and direction to take in this area,” Hilker said.
None of this can be done without the financial resources and fundraising by the Foundation and Auxiliary for much needed hospital equipment.
“We’re expanding our ultrasound services which are currently five days a week. We’d like to operate seven days a week to help address some of the wait time and improve accessibility to our emergency department,” he noted.
“The biggest challenge will be to recruit more staff.”
All of this is happening against a backdrop of working on the hospital’s master plan which will spell out the details of a new hospital.
“We are working with the Ministry of Health and Central East LHIN (Local Health Integration Network) to support that project,” Hilker said.
“It’s a huge project and will take many years to do … meanwhile the building keeps getting older and older,” he noted.
The new hospital “will be bigger with more beds and capacity to meet current standards.”
Hilker knows it’s a difficult and long process because he was vice-president and chief financial officer during the building of the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.
“One of the key things when you get into later stages is to involve staff and patients in the design to make sure everything is accessible and flows well and patients get the best use of the facility,” he said.
Three years after being appointed, Hilker leads the hospital’s “pursuit of excellence” as demonstrated by the introduction of volunteers in the ER, improvements in infection control, addition of a VON-run adult day program, development of long-range infrastructure plans and more.
Date: January 11, 2016