Hospital Improvement Plan Implementation

Niagara Health System

• Developing the Plan
  • About HIP
    • Why a HIP?
    • Questions and Answers
    • Case for Change
    • Quality Care
    • Financial Pressures
    • Factors Driving Change
    • How Can We Change?
    • NHS at a Glance
    • Better Ways of Delivering Care
  • Background
    • Key Messages
    • National Trends in Health Care
    • Niagara’s Population
      • Geographic Overview
      • Travel Maps
      • Population Projections
      • Population Characteristics
      • Income and Employment
      • Health Determinants & Practices
      • Health Status, Life Expectancy
      • Hospitalization
      • Prevalence of Chronic Conditions
      • Disease Prevalence Maps
  • FAQs
    • The Hospital Improvement Plan
    • Emergency Care in Fort Erie/Port Colborne
    • Women’s & Children’s Health
  • Vision / Plan
    • HIP Addendum – December 2008
    • HIP Addendum & Site Charts – November 2008
    • Kitts Review & Recommendations – October 2008
    • Consultation Summary Report – October 2008
    • Draft Hospital Improvement Plan – July 2008
    • Health Experts Say …
      • Centres of Excellence
      • Emergency Services
      • Women’s and Children’s Health
    • Vision Details
      • Emergency Services
      • Women’s and Children’s Health
• Implementing the HIP
  • Implementation Plan – Year 1
  • Early Opportunities
    • Surgical Program
    • Medicine Program
    • Emergency Services
    • Maternal/Child Program
    • Addictions & Mental Health
  • Site & Services – Now and by 2013
  • Planning for Changes
  • Effective Use of Patient Care Equipment
  • HIP Implementation Steering Committee
• Stakeholder Relations
  • Community Information
  • Community Advisory Forums
  • Chair’s Message to C.A.F.
  • Vice Chair’s Address
• Contact
• News
• Videos
• Contact

Vice Chair’s Address

Good evening and welcome Ladies and Gentlemen,

For those of you that I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Mary Turner and I am Vice Chair of the Niagara Health System Board of Trustees.

Our Board Chair Betty-Lou Souter kindly asked that I attend on her behalf as she is unable to be here this evening.

I would like to acknowledge the attendance of Juanita Gledhill, Chair of our LHIN and LHIN CEO Pat Mandy. Juanita and Pat have both invested a tremendous amount of time in our Hospital Improvement Plan process and we look forward to their input and guidance through this next phase as we move rapidly to implement the plan.

Your attendance tonight is testament to your ongoing commitment to advancing well into the future the quality of patient care provided across NHS.

And to grappling with the important issues before us, as together we chart a better future for healthcare in Niagara.

As we’ve journeyed through the development and approval of the HIP, we’ve come up against some very, very difficult circumstances that have in turn been divisive and stressful.

Seldom is change ever easy and in healthcare –as we’ve seen in recent months – it can be even more challenging — especially change of the magnitude that is envisioned through the HIP.

From the outset we acknowledged this process would be a difficult one.

With the approval and support of our LHIN, we have now come to a time where we can turn the page and action the changes that were identified and put forward by many of you in this room.

We don’t have time to lose.

Providing quality of care is our number one priority.

And the pressures continue to mount and compound. You know these pressures all too well – not enough health professionals, an aging workforce, an aging population, less than optimal equipment and facilities and not enough money to go round.

The HIP was developed in part to ensure our patients get the right care, at the right time in the right place.

It’s time to get on with the task at hand – that is to rapidly move forward to make the changes we committed to in the HIP.

It can’t be stressed enough—there is no time to lose.

On December 16^th our LHIN endorsed the HIP.

The LHIN’s approval gives NHS a mandate to move forward to make changes over the next five years as outlined in the HIP.

Some of these changes will happen sooner than others – some not for five years. As each of you know this all has to be sorted out and that’s part of the job that begins with your help tonight.

There is a tremendous amount of talent in this room.

There is also a tremendous opportunity to get moving on the things that you believe will improve care and the conditions under which our health professionals provide that care.

Your participation in the HIP implementation, we believe will help ensure transparency, inclusion, understanding, dialogue as well as provide the feedback we need to be a better more responsive hospital system.

While this first meeting is the beginning of a beginning, I will emphasize again the urgency of moving rapidly and responsibly.

Dialogue, communication and information sharing will critical going forward and there are many different ways to communicate with our health partners. How are we going to do things differently to ensure success.

That’s one of the many things on the agenda tonight and to make this all work we need to hear from you about to find the best ways – the most effective means of facilitating constructive conversations between the people who provide the care across all our clinical programs, services and sites.

I want to wrap up my comments by thanking you for coming tonight and the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.

Before I turn the floor over to Juanita I would also like introduce Harriet Velasquez, our facilitator for the evening.

Harriet is the principal of her own firm working with organizations across all sectors in negotiation strategy, facilitation and mediation.

Harriet has held numerous senior roles including that of Senior Vice President with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Vice President, Information Technology for Thomson Newspaper Corporation.

Harriet we look forward to your assistance to help us get out of the starting gate and on with the job.

With all that said I would now like to invite Juanita forward.

Thank you.