No More Lethal Waits

Shawn Whatley, MD, is a seasoned physician leader with experience in emergency medicine and primary care. His passion for challenging accepted thinking and offering solutions started in emergency medicine at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. He served there as Interim Medical Director and then Physician Leader of the Emergency Services Program from 2008 to 2014. Working with a group of outstanding leaders and a motivated staff, he helped transform an average emergency department that had trouble attracting physicians into a province-leading ED. Annual patient visits grew from 73,000 to 100,000 over a few years. Southlake received special recognition from the Ontario Minister of Health in June 2013 for its provinceleading improvements to wait times. Today, Southlake cannot accommodate all the staff applying to work there. Dr. Whatley contributes articles regularly to The Medical Post and serves on the Post's Physician Advisory Committee. Dr. Whatley has served on the board of the Ontario Medical Association and more recently on the board of the Canadian Medical Association, as well as on numerous hospital and provincial planning committees. He is a Lecturer for the University of Toronto, Department of Family and Community Medicine, and an Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) in McMaster University's department of Family Medicine, Hamilton, Ontario.