Rouge Valley to lead more service growth and integrations

- From the RVHS AGM of Members, June 24, 2014 - Agenda Item # 4 

Rik Ganderton, President and CEO’s Report – Overview presented in the meeting  

The last year was a tightly scheduled and very full year at Rouge Valley Health System. As you’ve read in my President’s Report, we were not short on achievements for our patients and for our communities. 

We have worked very hard to design and implement new key initiatives:

Collaborative Care;  Patient Experience Training; The Staff Resource Team;  

The Lean Management System; and the The new Bed Map.  

All of these initiatives focused on better organizing our services to always place  patients and their families at the centre of all we do.

Continued investments in medical equipment, facilities

We would not be well positioned to grow or integrate services with other health care providers, as the chair outlined in her report, if we were not in a strong financial position. I am proud to report that we are in a surplus financial position ($6.9M) for the sixth consecutive year. That means we can continue to invest in strategic programs and services, medical equipment, information technology, and maintain our hospital facilities for our communities. 

A big part of our year involved the facilitated integration process. We are significantly disappointed by the lost opportunity of the proposed merger with The Scarborough Hospital. 

Our Rouge Valley Health System Board of Directors, physician leaders and senior management resoundingly supported the proposed merger during the last year, and in our board’s final decision on March 15, 2014. 

Focus on quality patient care 

Despite the intensity of analysis, planning, stakeholder engagement and meetings – our team of staff, physicians, midwives, Board members and other volunteers kept the hospital’s focus on quality improvement for patients. 

Service growth and integration for our communities were, and remain, key in our focus.

A great example of integration occurred just a few months ago in a partnership between Rouge Valley and Durham Mental Health Services (DMHS). Rouge Valley and DMHS integrated hospital and community services to better support mental health patients in the community. Thanks to new funding from the Central East LHIN, Rouge Valley has transferred funds for a full-time nursing position at DMHS, building on our previous partnership. 

Our regional cardiac care program continued to expand and integrate with other health care providers to meet community needs and save lives from Scarborough, to Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and throughout Durham Region.

From a quality perspective, we have maintained or improved our record of making Rouge Valley as safe as possible for our patients over the previous year. My report provides the details on this. 

As if the year weren’t busy enough, Rouge Valley’s team also stepped up when the ice storm struck in late December. Our services continued as clinical staff, facilities and security staff, physicians, midwives and volunteers at both hospital campuses made sure our communities had their hospital ready for them. 

In February, Chair Joan Wideman hosted our celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Ajax and Pickering hospital campus. Leading community fundraising in Ajax and Pickering in the 1950s, 1960s and ever since, is our RVAP Auxiliary, who we thank for their unwavering volunteer support. 

I also thank all of our volunteers, our Board of Directors, and our Community Advisory Group for providing valuable advice to our Board and hospital leadership.

In conclusion, we have become known for our relentless commitment to constant change, integration and improvement for patients. 

For that hard-earned reputation, Rouge Valley is well positioned to meet the challenges ahead and to constantly improve care for our growing communities. 

My full report and other AGM reports were posted online to our public website. Thank you all.