The expansion of healthcare and community outreach are at the top of the list for Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH).
The hospital board met on Thursday afternoon for its annual general meeting, and its final board meeting before a summer break. Acting president and CEO Karen Riddell provided an update on upcoming projects, which undoubtedly include one of the biggest in the history of the region, the new regional acute-care hospital.
Riddell told reporters that the planning process for the new hospital has gone smoothly.
"We're continuing with that, that's moving along very well," said Riddell. "We're hoping to go to tender next year."
Progress is also being made on a much-needed lab for cardiac care.
"The [catheter] lab project, we'll be kicking off that construction in September," said Riddell. "We'll be meeting with the architects and the project team for that, so we're hoping to get that kicked off."
The new lab will be added to the Ouellette campus. Once finished, it will help reduce wait times for heart patients needing angioplasties.
When touching on the hospital's recent awarding of the Accreditation with Exemplary Standing label from Accreditation Canada, Riddell said the process of maintaining it is a perpetual one.
"It's more of an ongoing and continuous quality improvement model," said Riddell.
Riddell also pointed to the success of a recently-extended program to pair WRH nurses with Windsor police officers as they patrol the downtown core, providing on-the-spot medical care to those who are vulnerable, such as those dealing with addiction and those who are homeless. The program has reduced the need for some patients to go to a busy emergency department for care.
The hospital's financial statement was also presented Thursday, which showed that the provincial funding the hospital received as a remedy for Bill 124, the overturned provincial legislation that limited publicly-funded employees to a one per cent raise per year, helped support hospital finances.