Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) President and CEO Lori Marshall has announced that she will retire this summer.
"Working with the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance has truly been the honour of my career," Marshall said on Wednesday.
"This is a community that I love, this is a hospital that I love," she added, saying that everyone she worked with and everyone who has needed care from her team remains important to her. "I've learned from every interaction that I've had," she explained.
"While we are thrilled for Lori as she embarks on the next chapter of her life, her retirement is an incredible loss for our organization," said Deb Crawford, CKHA's Board Chair.
"She's been a very, very dedicated leader for CKHA over the last seven years," Crawford added. "Lori has shone. We will very much miss her leadership, the inspiration that she has, the coaching that she does with our staff, and her dedication to CKHA and the community. We're very grateful for all that she's done."
Marshall spent almost four decades working in healthcare. She joined CKHA as President and CEO in 2017 after being recruited from an executive role at the former Community Care Access Centre for Essex, Lambton, and Kent.
"It's time," Marshall said when asked about her decision to retire. "What a wonderful career I've had. I have my health, I have my family, and for me it was time. The organization is in a great place right now. So, to me, that is the best time for us to be thinking about the future."
According to the Health Alliance, Marshall was instrumental in multiple projects during her time with CKHA. From restructuring the hospital's operational framework to securing Ministry funding for the Wallaceburg Redevelopment Project to creating a medical daycare area for patients and families to receive treatment.
She also led the Withdrawal Management Service, a project that provides a supportive environment to help with safe withdrawal from substances and follow-up addiction treatments. She oversaw the opening of the Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine (RAAM) Clinic in Chatham in 2019 and an additional office in Wallaceburg in 2021. Marshall was also instrumental in transitioning the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program, formerly operated by Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, to Chatham-Kent.
While Marshall led the organization, CKHA also became a founding partner of the Chatham-Kent Ontario Health team and earned the status of "Accreditation with Exemplary Standing" from Accreditation Canada for the period of 2022-2026.
Marshall says one of her proudest moments with CKHA came early on in her tenure. She explained that at the time, residents of Chatham-Kent were in need of urology services.
"That went into our strategic plan and it was an opportunity for us to, I would say, deliver on our promise," she said, adding that it took multiple departments to get the services up and running.
"It is an example of something we put in our plan, that we set out to do, and that we were able to implement. And we have recently welcomed our second urologist to the community," she added.
Marshall also led CKHA through the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I've often said there's nowhere else I would have rather been through the pandemic than here in this hospital working alongside everyone and serving our community," she stated. "I believe really strongly that we saved lives here."
Marshall explained that it was truly a collaborative effort, requiring not only the hospital but public health and all of the other partners with the Ontario Health Team.
"I think our community was well served by everyone who was in healthcare at that time. And I do think we collectively made a difference," she said. "It was, as everyone knows, a very trying and challenging time and I think we're continuing to live with some of the longer-term impacts of that pandemic. It was incredible how everyone came together and also how the community supported us."
One of the things Marshall brought to healthcare in Chatham-Kent was transparency, something she equates with accountability. She added that the characteristic is "well engrained" in the organization and should continue when she's gone.
"I think that transparency is really something that is a cornerstone of trust. And for people to come and receive care from the hospital, you need to trust the hospital," she said, noting that both good and challenging news needs to be shared with the public.
"I will have an ongoing interest in the hospital," Marshall said, as she will continue to live in the area, with CKHA as the place her family goes to for care. "I will watch it and be its greatest cheerleader," she added.
Marshall had one suggestion for whoever takes over her role in the future. "The best thing you can do as a CEO is to build relationships," she advised. "Get to know your organization. Get to know your community. That's where all the wisdom lies."