President's Blog
Rik Ganderton
We are implementing some changes at the Senior Management Team, effective Thursday, April 1, 2010.
The purpose of these changes is to better align portfolios with the evolving needs of our hospital, our corporate objectives and enhance the strong leadership skill set of our team.
Natalie Bubela will now have the title of Vice-President Regional Programs, Program Integration and Chief Nursing Executive (CNE). As CNE Natalie will have responsibility for the ongoing development and improvement of nursing and allied health professional practice. As VP Integration, she will be responsible for advancing RVHS’ participation in the implementation of the Central East LHIN Clinical Services Plan as well as the development of new program integration and program development opportunities. As VP Regional Programs, Natalie will have ongoing operational leadership for the Cardiac, Cancer and Women’s and Children’s programs.
Sonia Peczeniuk will continue as Vice-President Clinical Support, but will also take on responsibility for the Surgical Program. She will relinquish her role as VP Medical Affairs when our new Chief of Staff starts, likely towards the end of May.
Michele Jordan will be Vice-President Quality Improvement and Transformation. Michele will continue to lead transformation and the deployment of Lean organization wide. She will also take on the role as leading the improvement of quality organization wide. This will include clinical quality, customer service and safety. Michele will also work with me to develop the next iteration of our Strategic Plan on a Page.
John Aldis will continue as Vice-President Corporate Services, but will also take on responsibility for Post Acute Care.
I would also like to welcome Cheryl Williams to the Senior Management Team as Vice-President Acute Care Services. Cheryl will have responsibility for Emergency, Medicine and Critical Care, Mental Health and Patient Flow.
There are no immediate changes to the responsibilities of Darrell Sewell, Rick Gowrie or Dave Brazeau. Dr. Naresh Mohan and Dr. Romas Stas will continue in their roles as key members of the Senior Management Team.
I ask you all to continue to support our new leadership structure and I wish each of our VPs great success in their new roles and responsibilities.
Rik Ganderton
President and CEO
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Going beyond Peer Review Report recommendations
Chair’s Blog: Janet Ecker
To: The Rouge Valley team: all staff, physicians and volunteers
We did it.
Rouge Valley Health System has successfully implemented its Peer Review Report recommendations, as confirmed in a recent letter from the Central East Local Health Network (CE LHIN).
In his letter to me, CE LHIN Board of Directors Chair Foster Loucks states that Rouge Valley has met the requirements of the report, which were grouped in these categories: leadership; culture; strategy, financial; and governance. He adds, “Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication. The Rouge Valley Health System (RVHS) is to be commended for its many accomplishments.”
As chair of the RVHS Board of Directors, I wish to publicly thank and congratulate the entire Rouge Valley team – all staff, physicians, volunteers, my fellow members of the Board of Directors, the senior management team and medical leaders – on this considerable achievement.
Planning and action
Your focused planning and action in the categories identified in the Peer Review Report have put the hospital on the right track for our patients, communities and for our team. More than this, your collective focus has moved us well beyond implementation of the report.
This focus began with the Strategic Plan On-A-Page in 2007-08, which led to plans and actions on financial accountability and transforming work processes with a patients-first approach.
We are all now engaged in transforming Rouge Valley on a variety of key measures for our patients: quality care; wait times; effective use of our limited resources; and reinvestment in our facilities.
To best address the challenging recommendations of the report and engrain a culture of constant improvement, our senior management team has worked with our RVHS Board of Directors, our medical leaders, physicians, management staff and front-line staff. All of these groups have received extensive training and/or coaching in Lean management, a philosophy and method of constant improvement.
We are already recognized as leaders in the CE LHIN and beyond for our ongoing application of Lean, because of our tangible results already, including:
• Patients going home sooner thanks to improved patient flow and discharge planning at both hospital campuses;
• Patients and doctors getting lab test results faster at both hospital campuses;
• Patients spending less time waiting for care in our emergency departments, where almost 90 per cent of ambulatory patients are discharged in less than four hours;
• RVC ambulance offload times continuing to be among the lowest in Toronto. This initiative will be implemented at RVAP, now that our new emergency department is open.
I’m also proud to say that you have met and exceeded our commitment to maintain annual service volumes (at 2006-07 levels), while reducing costs to stay within budget as per the best peer hospitals in Ontario. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, we will have:
• Cared for 8,500 more emergency room patients than in 2006-07;
• Delivered 400 more babies;
• Carried out 600 more surgical procedures;
• Treated 900 more weighted cases; and
• Increased mental health services in outpatient capacity and in providing more crisis services.
Among other key Lean-related improvements, as documented from March 31, 2007 to September 30, 2009, we have reduced the amount of time patients wait for:
• Cancer surgery, from 82 days to 54 days;
• Hip replacement, from 300 days to 204 days;
• Cataracts, from 339 days to 167 days; and
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), from 128 days to 122.
Our publicly-reported quality indicators on hospital-acquired infections, Safer Healthcare Now Interventions, hand hygiene and Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio, have all shown marked improvements during the similar period. In fact, our hospital mortality rate is the lowest in the Central East LHIN.
MRI
The Peer Review Report also recommended that RVHS defer its capital development and installation of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner at Rouge Valley Ajax and Pickering hospital campus. This was the sole recommendation that we disagreed with, as we believe MRI is an essential modern diagnostic tool needed by our west Durham community. The Central East LHIN has been supportive of RVHS on this point. We will continue to work on getting an MRI at our west Durham hospital campus.
Summation: Quality and effectiveness
In short, we are all doing the best for our patients within our allocated resources – and so much better than we did before.
We all know we have more to do and are constantly challenging ourselves to innovate, eliminate waste and improve quality. Again, it’s my pleasure to congratulate our entire team on this accomplishment and encourage you all to remain focused on improving patient care. Thank you.
To: The Rouge Valley team: all staff, physicians and volunteers
We did it.
Rouge Valley Health System has successfully implemented its Peer Review Report recommendations, as confirmed in a recent letter from the Central East Local Health Network (CE LHIN).
In his letter to me, CE LHIN Board of Directors Chair Foster Loucks states that Rouge Valley has met the requirements of the report, which were grouped in these categories: leadership; culture; strategy, financial; and governance. He adds, “Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication. The Rouge Valley Health System (RVHS) is to be commended for its many accomplishments.”
As chair of the RVHS Board of Directors, I wish to publicly thank and congratulate the entire Rouge Valley team – all staff, physicians, volunteers, my fellow members of the Board of Directors, the senior management team and medical leaders – on this considerable achievement.
Planning and action
Your focused planning and action in the categories identified in the Peer Review Report have put the hospital on the right track for our patients, communities and for our team. More than this, your collective focus has moved us well beyond implementation of the report.
This focus began with the Strategic Plan On-A-Page in 2007-08, which led to plans and actions on financial accountability and transforming work processes with a patients-first approach.
We are all now engaged in transforming Rouge Valley on a variety of key measures for our patients: quality care; wait times; effective use of our limited resources; and reinvestment in our facilities.
To best address the challenging recommendations of the report and engrain a culture of constant improvement, our senior management team has worked with our RVHS Board of Directors, our medical leaders, physicians, management staff and front-line staff. All of these groups have received extensive training and/or coaching in Lean management, a philosophy and method of constant improvement.
We are already recognized as leaders in the CE LHIN and beyond for our ongoing application of Lean, because of our tangible results already, including:
• Patients going home sooner thanks to improved patient flow and discharge planning at both hospital campuses;
• Patients and doctors getting lab test results faster at both hospital campuses;
• Patients spending less time waiting for care in our emergency departments, where almost 90 per cent of ambulatory patients are discharged in less than four hours;
• RVC ambulance offload times continuing to be among the lowest in Toronto. This initiative will be implemented at RVAP, now that our new emergency department is open.
I’m also proud to say that you have met and exceeded our commitment to maintain annual service volumes (at 2006-07 levels), while reducing costs to stay within budget as per the best peer hospitals in Ontario. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, we will have:
• Cared for 8,500 more emergency room patients than in 2006-07;
• Delivered 400 more babies;
• Carried out 600 more surgical procedures;
• Treated 900 more weighted cases; and
• Increased mental health services in outpatient capacity and in providing more crisis services.
Among other key Lean-related improvements, as documented from March 31, 2007 to September 30, 2009, we have reduced the amount of time patients wait for:
• Cancer surgery, from 82 days to 54 days;
• Hip replacement, from 300 days to 204 days;
• Cataracts, from 339 days to 167 days; and
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), from 128 days to 122.
Our publicly-reported quality indicators on hospital-acquired infections, Safer Healthcare Now Interventions, hand hygiene and Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio, have all shown marked improvements during the similar period. In fact, our hospital mortality rate is the lowest in the Central East LHIN.
MRI
The Peer Review Report also recommended that RVHS defer its capital development and installation of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner at Rouge Valley Ajax and Pickering hospital campus. This was the sole recommendation that we disagreed with, as we believe MRI is an essential modern diagnostic tool needed by our west Durham community. The Central East LHIN has been supportive of RVHS on this point. We will continue to work on getting an MRI at our west Durham hospital campus.
Summation: Quality and effectiveness
In short, we are all doing the best for our patients within our allocated resources – and so much better than we did before.
We all know we have more to do and are constantly challenging ourselves to innovate, eliminate waste and improve quality. Again, it’s my pleasure to congratulate our entire team on this accomplishment and encourage you all to remain focused on improving patient care. Thank you.
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