It’s been a busy year for staff and management at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.
2025 was a transitional year for the hospitals in Chatham and Wallaceburg, including a corporate structure review.
President and CEO Adam Topp, who has been with CKHA since mid-2024, says implementing the organization’s new five-year strategic plan has been one of the highlights of 2025.
“The patients that we serve should be excited about it too, because it makes sure that we focus on our patients every single day. That’s what really it’s about, when we say our new vision is ‘our focus is you.’”
Topp says one of the hospital’s greatest accomplishments this past year has been staff recruitment, with a zero percent vacancy rate for emergency department nurses in both Chatham and Wallaceburg.
“That means that we are promoting the hospital well, and it means that we’re doing a good job of making it a great place to work,” Topp adds. “That’s one of our strategic goals, and I think we’re seeing the results of that effort to some extent. It’s really nice to be able to recruit staff to take care of patients.”
Continuing to tackle the deficit is a challenge Topp and other management at CKHA will be working on heading into 2026. The hospital ended its 2024/2025 fiscal year with a $13.5 million deficit, with a budgeted deficit for 2025/2026 sitting at $5 million.
“We have made a number of changes, including an organizational restructuring in which we took out eight management positions from the organization. I think that is the bright side of that coin is it’s going to help us streamline our efforts and do things with a little bit more clarity and a little less bureaucracy.”
Looking ahead to the new year, Topp says he’s hoping to be able to announce more news on the next steps of redevelopment of the Wallaceburg site.
Hospital officials are waiting to hear back from the province on their latest submission, including additional information provided to the Ministry of Health in just the last few weeks.
“The next step is a detailed planning grant, shortly followed by an RFP (request for proposal) to get construction underway.”
Topp says that while they may not have shovels in the ground in 2026, they should be able to have a contractor in place in the next 12 months.
Despite the challenges, Topp says staff and management at the Health Alliance look forward to continuing to serve the community in the year to come.