The Erie St.Clair Community Care Access Centre's new three-year strategic plan seeks to increase transparency.
The plan is up on the agency's website, and CEO Lori Marshall says the agency also plans to hold an annual accountability session in the community.
Marshall also says the CCAC will introduce a volunteer patient and family adviser to sit on committees and hiring panels, draft policies and help write patient information. "Individuals who have had some recent experience with the CCAC, maybe over the past two or three years, who can come in and work with us on really every facet of our organization."
The plan also addresses the agency's finances.
Last November, the agency expected a $1.8-million deficit, but Marshall admits the total will be higher. "There's a couple of reasons," she says. "We haven't been able to factor in yet the impact of the labour disruption." Nurses working for the CCAC were on strike earlier this year over a wage dispute.
She adds a halt in reorganization also affected the deficit. "In the fall, there were a few key strategies that we took a pause on and one of them was discharging patients if they were going to end up on a wait list at another organization."
The Erie St.Clair Local Health Integration Network decided to give the CCAC a $4.1-million boost in funding and allow it another year to balance its finances. Marshall expects to do that in March 2016.
