Dear Community Members:

In this, my second letter to the community, I am pleased to inform you of some of the initiatives underway aimed at improving patient care.

First of all our staff and physicians are carrying very heavy workloads in delivering the rapid growth of services since opening the new hospital. This has impacted both Etobicoke General Hospital and Brampton Civic Hospital.  Successful recruitment and retention of highly skilled staff is critical to our success in delivering safe, high quality patient care to our communities. I encourage the community to support your hospital and its team in every way possible to attract health care professionals to these great communities and specifically to William Osler Health Centre. Recruitment efforts of late have been encouraging.

Top health care providers want to be part of a "good news" story and our success on this front guarantees great health care for our communities going forward.  Let's work together in a very positive way to make this a better place.

Financial Update

An interim Chief Financial Officer is on board and is negotiating the Health Centre's budget. We have been provided with an extension of 30 days (to April 30) to finalize our accountability agreement with the government.  Unlike some other hospitals in Ontario,

Osler is in a state of growth and is not reducing services
to balance its budget.
In fact, we are still hiring nurses and other health professionals
and have expanded a number of programs.

Further budgetary details will be available in the annual report, which will be available in June.

Quality Improvements

·         An external consultant is reviewing the structure and membership of the Board of Directors and will provide recommendations shortly.

·         A new VP, Patient Services, will oversee the culture of patient care, and improve processes and structures to ensure quality and safety and accountability. This position is currently filled by an interim VP.

·         We have a new Chief Nursing Officer and Site Executive for Etobicoke General. The CNO has primary responsibility for quality assurance. Patient services such as Ombudsman, Spiritual Care and Ethics are being integrated with nursing and professional practice.

·         A new Director of Diversity has also been recruited. This individual has extensive experience in health care diversity program management and will develop an innovative model for responsive patient care.

·         A pilot project to use health care aides in a limited capacity is being developed. This will free RNs and RPNs to provide more clinical care.

·         An independent review of quality, patient safety, best practices and risk management has been completed and recommendations are being implemented. This includes: revising the process for investigating adverse events; preparing patient safety plans; determining staff training needs to improve quality and safety; and working with our vendors to improve online reporting systems.

·         A physician/nursing team is looking at ways to improve emergency department capacity and flow. Triage and nursing staff will soon be receiving additional skills training. A Patient Care Coordinator role has been established for emergency services.

Etobicoke General Hospital

Etobicoke General has always had a reputation as a fine hospital, with very competent and caring staff and physicians.  In order to continue that standard of service, the facility and equipment must be upgraded to the level of Brampton Civic.

A major redevelopment project has been launched at the Etobicoke site that will involve both clinical and aesthetic improvements in areas such as emergency, critical care, day surgery and public spaces. Magnetic resonance imaging is now available, and a second CT scanner was opened this week.  We also expect to add dialysis treatment very shortly.  These commitments and other changes will ensure that Etobicoke residents have the highest calibre of health care close to home.

Brampton Civic Hospital

Brampton Civic is one of only a handful of community hospitals in Canada providing innovative video assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) procedures - such as VATS lobectomy, esophagectomy and pneumonectomy -  for cancer treatment. In the fall of 2007, the Division of Thoracic & Foregut Surgery, located at the Brampton Civic Hospital site, received Level 1 designation, the highest category, from Cancer Care Ontario.

This is a strong vote of confidence in our surgical team's ability to provide exceptional thoracic care.

Brampton Civic has a new manager in the emergency department, with strong expertise in emergency department administration.  Despite significant increases in triage activity, particularly in high-risk cases, wait times are holding steady and we are putting in new processes to improve patient flow and wait times.

A retail pharmacy and the volunteer-operated gift shop are now open to the public.

Equipment issues are being addressed, including construction of a cellular tower to improve communication with clinical staff and response times.

Peel Memorial Hospital

In February, the Central West LHIN's Peel Memorial Hospital Task Force recommended that the Lynch Street site be redeveloped to provide ambulatory and urgent care. This means we can increase our scope for providing non-critical health care services. It will also help take some of the load off Brampton Civic and Etobicoke General, and allow staff there to focus even more on emergency, critical, and acute care.

Community support is crucial in determining how well a hospital can serve its patients and families.  It affects our ability to recruit good physicians and staff, attract funding for equipment and services, and continually improve quality of care.

Ken White, Supervisor