The Owen Sound Hospital will get an additional 1.13-million dollars in funding from the South West LHIN.

The money comes from having an impressive improvement in Emergency Room wait times.

Grey Bruce Health Services President and CEO Maureen Solecki says the Owen Sound hospital has the fourth shortest ER wait times in the province.

The wait times are measured for hospitals that have over 30-thousand ER visits per year.

Solecki says the most significant achievement is that they have come in well below the targets set by the South West LHIN in all four categories of wait times.

The longest wait time is for complex patients who are admitted.

Nine out of 10 of those patients in Owen Sound wait 8.3 hours -- far below the 23 hour target.

Solecki says this is a team effort involving not only ER staff, but also outside staff who organize supplies and set up the examination rooms.

Solecki says the 1.13 million dollars will be used toward front-line ER staff and to improve some of those small things that improve efficiencies for patients.

This is the first time that hospitals involved in the pay for performance evaluation have known how they rank against other hospitals in the province.

Solecki says in the past years, they've only known if they've improved against themselves.

She says this is important because it allows hospitals across the province to communicate with each other about what is working to cut down ER wait times at all of Ontario's hospitals.