Wait times for long-term care beds in the region have been nearly sliced in half since 2013, but they continue to be high for popular homes.
In the summer of 2013 residents in Erie St. Clair were waiting an average of 75 days for a long-term care bed. Last year that dropped to 42 days, a decrease of 44%.
However, some locations continue to have extremely long waits because of the home's popularity.
The Iler Lodge in Essex, for example, has a wait list of more than four years to get into a basic bed. Windsor's Huron Lodge posts a 1353-day wait for the same option.
The Fairfield Park nursing home in Wallaceburg has a wait list of 275 days -- the highest in all of Chatham-Kent.
CEO of the region's Community Care Access Centre Lori Marshall says seniors don't have to wait at home for these popular places.
"Over 60% [in Windsor-Essex on the wait list] are individuals who are already in a long-term care bed. They're just waiting for their most preferred option in terms of a different home," says Marshall.
The Erie St. Clair, which includes Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton, has the shortest wait time from assessment to placement in Ontario, she says.
As more seniors begin to age, Marshall says ensuring they're aware of all options will help keep wait times down.
"We really want to make sure that we have opportunities for individuals to age at home, if that is their choice," she says. "And other options as well, such as retirement homes, convalescent care."
The additional 256 beds at the Village at St. Clair in Windsor, which started accepting its first patients in the summer of 2014, also helped alleviate some pressure on the system.
Marshall also says there are fewer urgent care beds at area hospitals being taken up by seniors waiting for space at a long-term care home.
Find a full list of wait times below for all homes in the Erie St. Clair region as of April, 2016:
