For Immediate Release
February 8, 2011

Hôtel-Dieu Grace Celebrates Cataract Surgery Success
Unit performs 20,000 procedures in four years while exceeding provincial wait time benchmarks

(Windsor, ON) Today, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital congratulated Dr. Barry Emara, Chief of Ophthalmology and our Cataract Surgery team for performing more than 20,000 procedures since 2007 and for their plans to be the first Eye Program in Canada to acquire the Stellaris PC – among the newest and latest in the state-of-the-art technology for these procedures.

In the late 1980s, a cataract surgeon could perform only six to eight procedures daily, using extracapsular cataract extraction, a procedure that took 30 to 60 minutes under general anaesthesia. The HDGH Cataract Surgery Program now performs an average of 40 to 45 procedures daily - that’s one surgical procedure every seven minutes - a benchmark in the province if not the country, totaling more than 5,000 cases annually out of one operating room.

According to Heidi LeBoeuf, RN and Cataract Program Lead, more than 20,000 cataract procedures have been performed at HDGH, as well as 637 retinal procedures and 19 corneal transplants since 2007. “Our Cataract Surgery Program achieves high efficiency by combining faster technology and surgical techniques, more streamlined patient care procedures and improved patient flow strategies,” states Dr. Barry Emara, Chief of Ophthalmology. “Step by step, we have improved our efficiency. Today, the highly efficient and integrated HDGH Cataract Surgery Program is not only a benchmark in the province for the number of procedures performed, but it also among the shortest wait times – considerably lower than the provincial benchmark,” said Emara.

The Canadian Ophthalmological Society states that 16 weeks is the benchmark medically acceptable wait time for cataract surgery. At Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital, current wait times are an impressive four to six weeks.

With seven staff ophthalmologists and a dedicated team of support staff, HDGH is the only hospital providing comprehensive ophthalmology services this side of London. With 30% to 40% of patients coming as referrals from
outside of the Windsor and Essex County area, the program has realized a significant per capita reduction in operating room and staffing costs and reduced hospital time for patients.

In addition to celebrating these outstanding achievements by our Cataract Program, Stephan Ekmekjan, Commercial Director Surgical Division at Bausch & Lomb, announced today that in the very near future, Bausch & Lomb Canada will be launching its latest technology, the Stellaris PC at HDGH – a first in Canada. This newest and latest in the state-of-the-art phacoemulsification/vitrectomy technology will allow anterior and posterior segment surgeons the procedural choice to perform both anterior and posterior segment surgery with the ease of one machine. This technology is one of the many fruits of Bausch & Lomb’s research and development pipeline, which continues to be the strongest in the ophthalmic market.

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For more information contact Steve Erwin, Director of Communications at 519-973-4433.