Hotel-Dieu gets grant to pay Dupont inquest costs

from Sonja Puzic, The Windsor Star

Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital has received $280,000 from the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) to help cover its costs for the inquest into the 2005 deaths of nurse Lori Dupont and ex-boyfriend Marc Daniel.

After a Hotel-Dieu hospital board meeting Wednesday, CEO Neil McEvoy said the amount is “very reasonable,” given the “unusual” circumstances of the inquest, its cost and the toll it has taken on hospital staff and management. The inquest wrapped up in December.

Daniel stabbed Dupont to death at the hospital before killing himself with a lethal injection near the downtown waterfront.

McEvoy said he couldn’t give the exact cost of the inquest, which heard from more than 50 witnesses over 34 days of testimony spread out over more than 10 weeks.

“I know what some of our legal costs were, but you have to consider the staff being away (to attend the inquest) and then having to replace them and other factors.”

McEvoy said the $280,000 “wasn’t a drop in the bucket.”

“It’s sufficient. The LHIN has been very sensitive to our needs.”

The LHIN is funded by the province’s Ministry of Health.

The hospital’s board has been under fire for refusing to publicly endorse the 26 recommendations made by a coroner’s jury after the inquest.

Jurors concluded hospitals should get more power to manage misbehaving doctors, all workplaces should be made to provide domestic violence education, Ontario should establish courts specifically devoted to domestic violence cases and laws should be amended to enable Ministry of Labour investigators to take action in cases of workplace harassment and abuse.

A week later, Windsor Regional Hospital’s board endorsed 25 of the 26 sweeping recommendations.

In his report to the board Wednesday, McEvoy said “detailed work” on the jury’s recommendations continues.

“We’re working really hard, line by line, on the recommendations,” he said, promising a full report from management by June.

Also in his report Wednesday, McEvoy noted that employee and physician satisfaction has taken a dip, according to a survey that asked staff whether they would recommend Hotel-Dieu as a workplace to others.

The employee satisfaction level was at 68.7 per cent, “down a few percentage points” from last year, McEvoy said. The physician satisfaction level was at 74.5 per cent. McEvoy said he’s not surprised by the results since the survey was taken in September and October of 2007, in the midst of the Dupont-Daniel inquest.

“Not to use it as an excuse … but it was a traumatic time for our staff,” McEvoy said.

He later said the hospital will focus on “the details” of employees’ workplace surroundings to help make them feel happier.