Second Telephone Town Hall – join the conversation!

On Monday, May 27, from 7:00 to 7:45 p.m., we will be hosting our second-ever Telephone Town Hall meeting. This community-wide call allows us to connect with area residents and involve them in an interactive discussion about local health care services.

We are joined on the call by leaders from four of our health care partner organizations – the Central West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), Central West Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), Headwaters Health Care Centre, and Region of Peel Health Services. Together, we will talk about how we work together to provide extensive health services to the community. This live forum also gives participants a convenient way to connect with us and table their health care questions.

READ MORE: Questions and answers from the first Telephone Town Hall

Six months ago, we hosted our first Telephone Town Hall with our regional health partners. This event brought together 5,000 members of our community. Participants believed that it was a great forum for two-way dialogue.

Community input continues to play an important role in our efforts to bring Osler’s new Strategic Plan to life and implement new initiatives as part of our Vision, ‘patient-inspired health care without boundaries’.

We are proud to be part of a group of health care partners who are committed to helping improve local health care services. Please let your friends and family know about the Telephone Town Hall too. Be sure to sign up by Friday, May 24.

Second Telephone Town Hall – Join the conversation

Celebrating Osler Physicians

Every day at Osler, we see physicians making a difference in the lives of patients.

Yesterday was Ontario Physician’s Day and a great chance for us to recognize all our physicians for their dedication to patients and the ways they contribute personally and professionally to Osler’s vision of Patient-inspired health care without boundaries.

We’re extremely fortunate to have such a diverse and impressive group of professionals at Osler. As Ontario’s largest community hospital, we believe we attract the very best to serve our communities. We are proud of what they do for patients and their families. And, we are grateful for their leadership on Boards and committees and their participation in key initiatives right across Osler’s system, including support of the Foundation. Their involvement in health care extends beyond our hospitals as well – initiatives and occasions for expert opinion and professional insight put them at the table discussing matters which are transforming health care today and well into the future.

We can all celebrate physicians by taking a moment today to say Thank You for their commitment to exemplary health care.

RFQ Traction at Peel

We’ve reached another important milestone on Peel Redevelopment! On Friday, we announced with Infrastructure Ontario (IO) that we’ve narrowed the field down to three teams, as part of our Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process.

Three teams have been short-listed as potential candidates to design, build, finance and maintain the new facility. Each team will be invited to respond to a Request for Proposals (RFP) by fall 2013. Each team consists of a developer, design/builder, finance group and a facility maintenance provider. The short-list of teams is listed in Friday’s media release.

Check out our new, short video and booklet highlighting the importance of the new Peel Memorial. Remember you can find everything to do with redevelopment at www.buildosler.com.

Revolving around our community

As part of our efforts to provide patient-inspired care to our growing community, we are always reviewing our past to see what we can learn for our future.

Over this past year, we have begun to interact with our community in new and different ways to help deliver important information about health care and about how to better manage chronic diseases.

We have built relationships with community leaders and groups to better understand health needs in our region, and offered free public education about hot health topics. We also participated in community events to share hospital news and information. Our efforts took us to local elementary schools where we spoke to hundreds of students about the importance of hand-washing, community centres to help seniors learn how to prevent falls, and local malls to share healthy eating tips and assist in managing chronic diseases like diabetes.

What made this year stand out among the rest was our success in engaging our community in the development of our new corporate Strategic Plan. Through workshops, summits and panel sessions – including our first-ever Patient Experience Summit and Telephone Town Hall – we gathered input from approximately 12,000 people. What an achievement! We have used that feedback to inform our plan and build a roadmap that will guide our decisions over the next five years.

Let’s not forget that we are now on Twitter, which is a great avenue for ongoing conversation and feedback. Give us a follow to see what all the buzz is about at @OslerHealth!

Building on the success of our first event back in December 2012, we are very pleased to share that we are holding our second Telephone Town Hall on May 23 alongside our partners at the Central West Community Care Access Centre, Central West Local Health Integration Network, Headwaters Health Care Centre and the Region of Peel. In December, we engaged more than 5,000 people across the region in a community-wide call on the topic of local health care services. Check www.williamoslerhs.ca for further updates on the date and time of our next Telephone Town Hall, and for information about how you can be involved.

We are also looking forward to connecting with our community at our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 at Brampton Civic Hospital. The meeting is open to the public and community members are encouraged to attend. Learn more about the past year’s successes, plans for the coming year, and Osler’s vision for the future through the launch of its new Strategic Plan.

There are plenty of opportunities to connect with us in the time ahead. Continue to visit our website to learn more about how you can get involved with your hospital.

Our ongoing journey to quality care

This week, hospitals across the province posted their annual Quality Improvement Plans (QIP), sharing their key areas of focus to further improve the quality of care they deliver to patients and families.

A QIP is important for a number of reasons. For one, Ontario’s Excellent Care for All Act requires health care organizations to develop a QIP each year and post it publicly. It also includes specific improvement targets that hospitals can use to ensure overall accountability.

At Osler, our QIP is only one part of a larger, more comprehensive plan that builds on our strong foundation of quality and safety.

Osler’s 2013-2014 QIP builds on a number of our quality successes over the past year while maximizing the skills and expertise of our dedicated team of staff, physicians and volunteers.

We are focused on making improvements in areas which are important to our patients, our community and our organization. These improvements reflect on our commitment to evidence-based practices and providing the best possible care to meet the unique needs of the community we serve.

Some of the key initiatives contained in our QIP for this year include:

• Addressing several of Osler’s key safety improvement areas – specifically Falls Prevention;
• Maintaining Osler’s position as a leader in patient safety and community integration;
• Continuing to address length of stay in the emergency department, and reduce surgical wait times for fractured hips; andAchieving all organizational quality and safety measures, while maintaining a balanced budget and improving patient satisfaction.

The targets we have set out will be challenging, but we believe that it is important to build on our past successes and even more important to set the bar even higher for our organization going forward.

We are one of the safest hospitals in the province, as shown by the CIHI Report on Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR), released in December 2012. We are also making inroads on QIP indicators such as hand hygiene as evidenced by our 2012-13 progress report.

We are particularly proud of our quality achievements over this past year. As part of our Exemplary Standing designation through Accreditation Canada, our Quality Program was recognized as “the gem” of our organization.

Canada’s best diversity employer!

This week, Osler was announced as one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for 2013! This recognition is a first for Osler and an honour that we are extremely proud of. It speaks to the tremendous commitment of our staff, physicians and volunteers to create an environment that allows us to better understand and appreciate the unique beliefs and values of one another, as well as those of our patients and their families.

Diversity is something that is in our DNA at Osler – it is embedded in our clinical services, our human resources policies, and our workplace culture. We’ve always known that our efforts to create an inclusive, respectful and welcoming workplace are top-notch, and now, the rest of the country knows it too.

Beyond considering our focus on language and communications, the award recognizes our Corporate Diversity Strategy, Diversity Executive Committee and our Corporate Diversity Advisory Council – all formed with an aim to improve equity, access and inclusiveness across the organization and help support our efforts to provide patient-centred care. It also acknowledges our Diversity e-Learning Modules and our comprehensive offerings of diversity tools and resources – including annual Multi-Faith and Diversity Day events, conferences, panel discussions and FAQ sessions.

It has been a pretty exceptional few months for diversity at Osler. This award comes on the heels of our Exemplary Accreditation designation which recognized Osler for its leading practice in ‘Embracing Diverse Practices in Palliative Care’.

While we know that this award is a tremendous achievement, it also gives us a chance to examine some areas where we need to focus to ensure we are always improving in our diversity initiatives. These opportunities will help guide our efforts over the coming year, though we certainly know we are on the right track.

Our Canada’s Best Diversity Employer Award marks a significant milestone in our ongoing journey to provide an inclusive and equitable environment for everyone who comes through our doors. It is a true testament to the efforts of our staff, physicians and volunteers, who come together each and every day as a strong and cohesive team, providing quality care to our community.

Thank you for taking a moment to share in our good news.