The new chief executive at Chatham-Kent’s hospital is getting to work addressing the healthcare needs of the community.
Adam Topp took over as president CEO of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance early last week and began meeting with hospital staff and board members to acclimatize himself to the position.
Topp, who has over three decades of experience in both clinical and financial hospital leadership, said his first priority is to address health human resources challenges facing the hospital to ensure staff are properly taken care of so they can take care of their patients.
“We are recovering from what has been a pretty challenging period from the peoples’ perspective in terms of going through COVID and then going through the cyber attack,” he said. “How do we make sure that the people here are supported to go over the next ten years of whatever challenges that we’re going to face.”
The new CEO said he’s also looking forward to tackling the challenges associated with rural healthcare and keeping on top of the redevelopment of CKHA’s Wallaceburg site.
“That’s been a lot of work from the community, obviously, over many many years, and we’re looking forward to implementing that, which will certainly have its own set of challenges,” he said. “So that’s where I’ll walk in and make sure that the project goes smoothly, on time, and on budget.”
Topp previously served as President and CEO of Shared Health Manitoba; Chief Operating Officer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and various leadership roles at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
He replaces former CKHA CEO Lori Marshall, who retired from the hospital at the end of June.