Thank you and stay the course!

A joint Blog by RVHS Board Chair Janet Ecker and President/CEO Rik Ganderton
- To all staff, physicians, volunteers of RVHS

Progress.

If we had to pick one word that describes what has been achieved by the Rouge Valley team, then that would be the word.

Making progress is no small feat in the constantly challenging healthcare environment.
Thank you for your commitment to driving progress at our community hospital. It has been, is and will continue to be, a team effort.

As we move through the period of leadership transition, the Board wants our staff, physicians and volunteers to know that we fully support continuing on the road of transformation, accountability and quality focus that we have started on.
President and CEO Rik Ganderton and Chief of Staff Naresh Mohan are completing their terms in their respective positions. Both are staying on until the searches for their replacements are complete.

The RVHS Board of Directors wants everyone to know that it is totally committed to the transformative direction that you as staff, physicians and volunteers have been implementing with such success. The board is looking for new leaders to build on those successes; leaders who will continue our focus on quality, constant improvement and accountability.

Thank you for earning our achievements through your active participation in transformation initiatives and teamwork.
As you know, we have made progress on the key measures aligned with our Strategic Plan – www.rougevalley.ca/strat_plan.pdf.

• The designation this year by the Central East Local Health Integration Network (CE LHIN) of Rouge Valley Cardiology as the regional centre for the 401 corridor was an important recognition and reaffirmation for us. The designation set out in the Hospital Clinical Services Plan also supports our Strategic Plan, which selected cardiac care as one of our centres of excellence.

• Quality patient care is another area of progress, as evidenced by our published quality indicators. Continued focus by our staff and physicians is demonstrating success – www.rougevalley.ca/indicators.

• We are living within our means, as mandated by the province. We had an excellent first fiscal year of our three-year Deficit Elimination Plan. We maintained service volumes and improved quality while generating a small surplus. Although we are hitting some challenges in the first quarter results of this, the second fiscal year, we know we can succeed by applying greater focus on funded health services, as highlighted in our Town Halls in September.
We need to continue to improve our quality of care and our financial position by improving our management of volumes and case mix, by eliminating conservable days, following the new standardized clinical pathways and eliminating waste through the aggressive use of Lean principles. By doing this we can:
-Generate sufficient surpluses to enhance our core services, as we identified in our Strategic Plan;
-Cover unfunded inflation costs;
-Address capital needs; and
-Pay down our working capital deficit and long-term debt.
All of this will help us sustain and improve the healthcare we provide to our patients.

• Transformation of processes for delivering services to patients has been a success, as evidenced by:
-Improved patient flow and discharge planning for our patients at both campuses;
-Faster turn around time for lab test results for our patients at both campuses;
-Improved emergency department discharges at Rouge Valley Centenary, where 83.3 per cent of ambulatory patients are now discharged in less than three hours (among the lowest of discharge times in Toronto).

• Commitment to our vision to be the best at what we do, evidenced throughout Rouge Valley Health System in the improving care provided everyday. This commitment also comes through in the Personal Business Commitments starting with the CEO’s Personal Business Commitments, aligned throughout senior management. (www.rougevalley.ca/business_committments_rganderton_09_10.pdf/)

• Leadership. Rouge Valley Health System is increasingly seen as a leader in quality, accountability, and in our application of Lean as part of our ongoing transformation journey.

We really can’t stress enough that these successes, and many others, are the direct result of your daily attention to providing the best healthcare experience for our patients and their families.

So as we face funding challenges in the near future, and work to get patients home sooner (reducing conservable days) we ask you all to focus your plans and daily efforts for our hospital and our patients.

Thank you and stay the course!