The Yukon Hospital Corp.’s year-in-review highlighted progress in collaborative meal programs, reduced wait times for cataract surgery and expanded language services in 2018-19.

The hospital corporation is responsible for hospitals in Whitehorse, Dawson City and Watson Lake.

A community meal program was introduced at the Watson Lake Hospital in late 2018 thanks to a collaborative effort by the hospital’s director of patient care, Carol Chiasson, and Sonia Pourabdi-Laukkane, the Liard First Nation health manager.

The meal program was established to help Liard First Nation elders access nutritious food.

Frozen meals are prepared in the hospital kitchen and delivered directly to more than 40 elders, “many of whom might face mobility challenges or prefer or require minced or puréed foods.”

A blast chiller was installed in the hospital’s kitchen to efficiently freeze the meals.

“Nutrition is an important part of health and healing,” Pourabdi-Laukkanen said.

“These are delicious, healthy meals tailored to the needs of each elder that help improve health outcomes, increase elders’ independence and help them rely less on hospital care.”

This year was the 25th anniversary of the corporation’s Traditional Food Program, a platform aiming to further reconciliation through First Nations food education.

The three hospitals marked the anniversary by collaborating on educational programming with local illustrator Monika Melnychuk.

The hospital corporation also saw an increase in the number of Yukoners awaiting cataract surgery, a symptom of the territory’s growing aged population.

This year, more than 350 Yukoners were on a waitlist for surgery with wait times surpassing three years in many cases.

An increase in specialist visits to Whitehorse was planned to combat the high demand.

In the first three months of 2019, 260 surgeries were completed and the hospital corporation is on track to reach a goal of 520 by the end of the year. This is more than twice the number of surgeries conducted in 2018.

The hospital corporation is working to improve French-language services and provide access to an increased number of languages, the report says.

The corporation is collaborating with the territory’s French Language Services Directorate to provide all patients with service in both French and English.

A language services program was introduced and now provides patients and staff with medical interpretation in 240 languages either online, by phone or in person.

The year-in-review addressed bed scarcity at the Whitehorse hospital. The report states the hospital did not have any available beds one-third of the time last year.

Despite this challenge, there was improvement from previous years where a bed was not available more than half the time.

In the coming year there are plans to implement a universal health information system. The electronic system, 1Health, will streamline patient information, hospital inventory and finances.

“With this new system, we have a vision to offer a seamless care tourney enabled by one health information network for all Yukoners– one where patients’ health information moves with them,” the hospital corporation CEO, Jason Bilsky, and Board of Trustees chair, Brian Gillen, wrote in the report.

There was a slight increase in admissions at Whitehorse General Hospital, with a reported intake of 3,600 Yukoners in the last year. There were 32,500 emergency visits.

The hospital employed 540 staff and conducted 3,200 surgeries, 396 births and 2,350 MRI scans.

The number of surgeries in Whitehorse increased by 16 per cent from the previous year.

The Watson Lake and Dawson City hospitals saw 85 and 90 admissions, with 2,500 and 2,600 emergency visits, respectively.

The total expenses for the year totalled $88.7 million. Fifty-six per cent of expenses were credited to employee expenses. The year’s total revenue came to $88.5 million.

Eighty-four per cent of the hospital corporation’s revenue is public funding and six per cent is patient revenue.