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Headwaters hospital works to bring down deficit spending

July 24, 2025   ·   0 Comments

Written By JAMES MATTHEWS

The professionals at Headwaters Health Care Centre are focused on partnerships.

Such relationships are paramount at the Orangeville hospital to effectively provide health services to Dufferin County and the region.

Kim Delahunt, the hospital’s president and CEO, described some of the health care successes of the past year to Mono council when it met July 15.

“We’re really focused on partnerships,” she said. “These days you can’t do anything alone. All the community partners, the hospital, community providers, we all have a big role to play.”

To that end, the crowd at the hospital launched a cardiac wellness program with Orangeville, using one of the municipality’s facilities. And approval has been granted by the province for expansion at the hospital’s emergency department.

That work is underway, she said.

“It’s also going to slightly expand our diagnostic imaging department,” Delahunt said. “And our lab department will then move downstairs because all of this will happen within the current building structure.”

Thanks to a focus at the hospital on patient waiting, she said Headwaters is one of the top facilities in the province for having some of the lowest patient wait times.

“For any long-waiters, which are individuals that were waiting an extra-long time coming out of COVID, we got that list right down,” she said.

Further to that focus on the patient experience, Delahunt said the staff of family and patient advisors has been increased.

She said much thought is being given about the future and how to respond to developing challenges. A rapidly aging population in Dufferin-Caledon is reflected throughout the province.

But there’s one difference. That is the higher increase in people aged 65 and older in Dufferin-Caledon and residents aged 20-29. Those demographics in the region are growing faster than the provincial average.

“So we are planning at the hospital now for increasing access to senior services,” she said. “We’re doing that planning.

And then: “We are looking at ensuring that we are fiscally responsible,” she said.

In fact, there’s provincial effort to have all Ontario hospitals balanced in the next three years. Headwaters started considering that last year and a plan has been formulated.

“We decreased our deficits year over year already,” she said. “And we have plans to do so.”

Pending approval from Queen’s Park, Delahunt said there are plans for a complete redevelopment and expansion at Headwaters for the next 10 years and 20 years.

The hospital will need to add another 239,000 square feet to its footprint to accommodate that growth. There are 86 in-patient beds at the facility and, with the population growth that’s expected, the hospital should have 158 beds.

That means essentially doubling many of the programs and services at the hospital.

“This is a massive addition, massive expansion,” she said.

“If you ask somebody in the community if they have any healthcare concerns, two of the things that come up are a lack of physicians and wait times in the emergency department,” Councillor Ralph Manktelow said and asked what plans were in the works to deal with those issues.

Delahunt said physician recruitment is a big focus for the hospital.

“We have some short-term plans and long-term plans,” she said. “I wish there were more short-term plans and strategies.”

Headwaters’ partnership with the fledgling Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Medicine is part of a long-term plan. Student doctors are already working at Headwaters and some of them may decide to stay after their schooling.

Benefits were also reaped by the hospital’s participation in a one-year pilot program using a physician recruiter with Dufferin County.

“It’s a long process,” she said. “It’s relationship building.”

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