Wallaceburg Hospital, Strategic Plan Key Priorities For CKHA Boss In 2025 – 99.1 FM CKXS

After three months on the job, the top official at Chatham-Kent’s hospital is looking forward to the challenges and opportunities of the new year.

Chatham-Kent Health Alliance President and CEO Adam Topp has been busy at work becoming acclimatized to his new role after taking over from former hospital boss Lori Marshall in October.

“I’ve had a great opportunity to meet a lot of people and be welcomed into the community, and that’s been excellent,” he said.

While it’s only been a few months, Topp said he’s been able to hit the ground running, making progress in several areas including the redevelopment of the CKHA Wallaceburg site. Block schematics for the project have been submitted and approved to the Ministry of Health, paving the way for the detailed planning stage of the multi-million dollar project.

“There’s been a few really good accomplishments, not the least of which is beginning the work on the detailed planning,” said Topp. “We made sure that the project is moving on at a good pace and are planning for a detailed submission to government early in the new year.”

The year has not been without its challenges, however. Topp said CKHA is still feeling the effects of a cyberattack and massive data breach from back in October 2023. He said there are a few systems that affect workflows, which still remain offline.

“I think the organization has learned a great deal [through] that experience and it will put us in good stead to help us avoid it down the road,” said Topp. “I don’t think the cyber attack will ever be completely behind us because it’s something that we’re always going to be vigilant on going forward, and it’s always a risk.”

Another challenge facing CKHA, and thousands of Chatham-Kent residents, is the shortage of family physicians in the region. Topp said around 25 per cent of the municipality does not have a family doctor, which leads to an influx of patients attending CKHA’s emergency department for treatment.

“Their health has not been monitored by [a] family doctor and so they’re coming here sicker, they’re coming here not knowing what their issues are. So that’s a real challenge for us, it’s a real challenge for the community, but it’s a really big challenge for the individuals who don’t have a family doctor,” said Topp.

A big focus for CKHA officials in 2025 will be the development of a new five-year strategic plan, focused on meeting the needs of Chatham-Kent residents.

“So we’ll be looking at five years out, which gives us a nice planning horizon to really think about how we can provide more services to our local community,” said Topp.

He said the strategic plan is expected to be released in late June 2025.