Report from Nadine Doucette
Chair, Board of Directors, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
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Nadine Doucette, |
February 4, 2017
The first month of the New Year has been ushered in with a focus on working closely with our health care partners to enhance patient care and some very promising news for our Health Research Institute.
On January 25th, we welcomed the Hon. Bill Mauro, Minister of Municipal Affairs for Thunder Bay –Atikokan. This meeting provided the Hospital with an opportunity to brief one of our regional MPPs on several issues including an update on our Cyclotron, our Regional Orthopedic Program, the 2016 Operational Review recommendations and progress on the cardiovascular surgery program. With Brian Ktytor, Acting Chief Operating Officer of the North West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) also in attendance, we discussed our ongoing bed flow challenges and our commitment to find a solution.
The Resource Planning Committee, chaired by Board Director Grant Walsh, met on January 17. Peter Myllymaa, EVP, Corporate Services and Operations, provided a briefing on the financial and operational targets for the 2017-18 budget planning cycle. Amanda Bjorn, VP, Human Resources, also provided an update on our organizational development
The Audit Committee chaired by Board Director John Friday, endorsed a plan to allow Finance to conduct, quarterly, an independent internal audit of procurement transactions. Finance will select 10 to 20 procurement source samples and determine if the sourcing activity and authorization comply with the Hospital's procurement policies and Mandatory Requirements of the Procurement Directive issued by the province. Findings, whether compliant or non-compliant, will be reported to the Committee through the EVP, Corporate Services and Operations. This independent internal audit will save the Hospital approximately $7,725 annually in external audit costs.
I extend my gratitude to my fellow Board members for their engagement. I also thank them, and the Senior Leadership team, for their participation during our staff appreciation celebrations just before the holiday season. On December 19th, Board members and Senior Leaders helped to deliver food baskets on day and night shifts to every department of the Hospital as a token of appreciation for all the amazing contribution to patient care that our staff provides day in, and day out.
Finally, I extend my congratulations to all of the Walk the Talk Award Winners. The Board of Directors selected the Regional Critical Care Response (RCCR) Team to be the winner of the 2016 Walk the Talk Board of Directors Award. The RCCR Team was developed in March 2015 to provide hospitals in Northwestern Ontario with 24/7 access to critical care specialists via the Ontario Telemedicine Network. Using an inter-professional care model, the RCCR team brings together the sending, transporting and receiving caregivers via telemedicine to create a collaborative care plan. The RCCR team provides resuscitative support, stabilization, quicker patient transfers and allows select patients to remain in their home hospitals with RCCR support.
Since its inception, the RCCR team has provided 401 video consults, facilitated 349 air transfers and 90 patients were able to be maintained in their home hospitals.
RCCR has presented at several conferences and was recently awarded Honor Roll status for the 2016 Health Minister’s Medal. They are deserving of the award, which recognizes the collaboration of the 17 involved organizations that have contributed to improving access to critical care services and enhanced quality of care within Northwestern Ontario. RCCR has received a Northern Ontario Academic Medicine Association (NOAM) research grant to study benefits of standardizing processes and impact on transfer times.