Come Together Expo at TMHThe second of four Come Together Expos at QHC boasted 25 displays, approximately 100 attendees and lots of Silo Busting at TMH! The event, planned by the Project Silo Buster team, transformed the cafeteria at TMH into an open house of departments ‘strutting their stuff’.

It was two hours of information sharing, lively discussion and learning more about the important work of colleagues across departments. From M&M candies in pill jars at the Pharmacy display to a cape-clad TMH Emergency superhero, the departments involved did a stellar job in creatively displaying the good work they do every day across QHC hospitals.

Technician Everett Payne, hosting the Medical Device Reprocessing Department display, got to show off his department’s good work to three very special visitors to the event; his grandsons Aiden, Kaleb and Wesley.

93% of the attendees who filled out a ballot indicated they had learned something new from the departmental displays. That means a lot of our Silos were busted.

QHC PECMH is the next hospital to host the Come Together Expo on February 19th! Departments are asked to register by email to: cwalker@qhc.on.ca

Vital Signsexceptional care, inspired by us

January 2015

THIS EDITION

Come together in Trenton

Board hears next steps for QHC budget process 2015/2016

Question about the QHC budget process 2015/2016

Healthcare Tomorrow

Accreditation Gold

Volunteers needed

Silo Busters: Speed sharing

Discharge planning makes a difference

Looking for Board members

Wellness Skating Event

Board update on the 2015/16 Planning Process for QHCFor the upcoming fiscal year that starts April 1, the gap between QHC’s expected revenues and expenses is projected to be $12 million if we did not make any changes. We are facing serious financial challenges for the foreseeable future and need to make changes as an organization in order to remain financially healthy. The Board of Directors has directed QHC to create a plan that will make QHC hospitals the most efficient in Ontario and ensure that we continue to deliver high-quality over the long term. At the last Board meeting on Tuesday January 27 the QHC Board received an update on process and the next steps that are anticipated. At this meeting, no decisions or announcements were made about possible changes and that won’t happen until early March, when we go to staff planning.

“We continue to work with our clinical leaders and others to investigate every possible option for closing our funding gap, but this is a long process,” said QHC President and CEO Mary Clare Egberts. “The Board expects us to take the necessary time to explore and fully evaluate any options because they appreciate the impact of these decisions on everyone involved.”

“In the meantime, we understand that there have been rumours circulating and misinformation in the local media that can cause additional anxiety during this already stressful time,” added Mary Clare. “Since we may still be months away from making decisions, I unfortunately expect we will continue to have rumours for some time.”

Thanks to help from all of our staff, physicians and management ,we have already found 20 million in efficiencies over the last three years. We need to make QHC even more efficient and effective if we are to continue to provide exceptional care in the new funding environment. There are many small and big ways that you can help with this every day, such as choosing supplies wisely and bringing forward other ideas on how we can reduce waste in your area. We must also continue to focus on our Wildly Important Goals so that we can meet our strategic direction while balancing our budget.

Image provided by Luke Hendry, The Intelligencer

2015/16 Planning Process: Your Questions AnsweredWhy is this happening?As part of the provincial health care transformation that began three years ago, the Ministry of Health continues to reduce its funding for hospitals across Ontario like QHC in order to deal with the provincial deficit. These limited financial resources are being reinvested in health care providers in our communities. Aren’t we already efficient? We do many things very well at QHC and we are becoming more efficient every year and everyone has worked hard to achieve these efficiencies. This includes meeting our expected costs for many of the Quality Based Procedures (e.g., cataracts, hip/knee replacements). However, there is also a lot of data and evidence that shows we are not as efficient as our peer in some areas. We need to become one of the most efficient community hospitals in Ontario in order to operate within our provincial funding allocation. Our aim is to not only care for our patients within the expected costs but to do it better than our peers. It seems like every year we are going through cutbacks. When is it going to stop?Given the provincial deficit situation, we know that hospital budgets will be challenged for the foreseeable future. That is why the Board has directed us to create a five-year plan for QHC, rather than continuing to focus on only year-by-year planning.

What will the impact be on staff? How many layoffs will there be?It is too soon to answer that question and everyone is still looking at all of our available options. However, the reality is that it is not possible to remove this amount of funding from an organization without reducing the number of positions both staff and management. Our aim is to manage this through vacant positions, early retirements and reassignment opportunities as much as possible.

What are the next steps?Continue discussions with the LHIN and Ministry of Health and investigate and analyze every available option to close the financial gap. Develop a proposed operating plan to take to our unions partners in March, with the final Board approval on the 15/16 operating plan expected in April. Continue looking at the long-term impacts of the funding formula and inflation for QHC to create the longer-term plan for future clinical services structure at QHC.

Health Care TomorrowWe all are acutely aware of the challenges facing health care. Budgets are tightening; patients have an increasing number of chronic diseases and more complex conditions that require more care. Also did you know that our region has the highest proportion of its population over the age of 65 in the province?

Given all of these factors, the challenge is to find ways to sustain high quality patient care across South Eastern Ontario. This is why hospital and system leaders within the South East LHIN have launched a collaborative project to explore the future of hospital services across the region.

“This project is a collaboration with our hospital and CCAC partners in this region to develop a sus-tainable hospital system that delivers integrated and high quality care for patients and families,” says Mary Clare Egberts, QHC’s President and CEO.

To gather the necessary public, staff and physician input, the hospitals hosted a Visioning Day in Oc-tober that brought together boards of directors, physicians, staff, and patients to share their ideas and thoughts on what the future of health care in our region could look like. At the same time, a new public website was launched that will continue to provide regular updates on the project: www.HealthCare-Tomorrow.ca.

Input from patients and families play a key role and the South East LHIN has created a Regional Patient Advisory Council to bring together patients and family members. Their role will be to discuss and test ideas related to the future of health services across the South East region. Each of the seven hospitals in our region have selected two members from their existing Patient and Family Advisory Councils, while an additional eight members have been recruited from the broader community. This group will inform the recommendations that are created and to ensure that the patient voice is reflected in the eventual design of a sustainable system of integrated care.

Specific working groups have begun to look at key areas and ways to improve quality and access for patients across the entire hospital system. The hospitals are committed to working collaboratively and making sure that the options developed best meet the needs of patients now and in the future. As it moves forward this current project will help our hospitals redefine the health care system across our region and ensure the best care for patients, for families and for Health Care Tomorrow.

Watch the video and join in the conversation by completing the short survey that is available on the website—let us know what you think and make sure your opinion is heard.

QHC is going for Gold!Accreditation preparations are ramping up for our Spring on-site survey. Four Accreditation Canada surveyors will be on site at all QHC hospitals during the week of May 4th to 8th.

Teams have been working hard for over a year to ensure that QHC is

compliant with the 18 standards that include over 2100 criteria. “Self-assessment surveys were completed in summer 2014 and the Accreditation teams have reviewed their results and have created action plans,” said Taralynn Richmond, Patient Experience Specialist and Accreditation team member. “They are currently compiling responses to the red and yellow flags from their self-assessments.”

The Accreditation surveyors will spend the majority of their time speaking with front line staff, physicians, patients and families. The surveyors want to see first-hand how we are meeting the standards in our daily practice. “This is a great opportunity for us to showcase the fantastic care we provide on a daily basis to our patients and families,” said Melanie Maracle, Manager Corporate Risk and another Accreditation team member.

We are working on a variety of initiatives to help staff understand our accreditation journey and what to expect with the on-site survey. Mock surveys will take place in all clinical areas during the months of February and March. Mock surveys help staff to get a sense of how the accreditation process works and what types of questions the surveyors will ask.

During our last accreditation we achieved accreditation with commendation (a silver metal) and this year we are aiming for GOLD by achieving Accreditation with Exemplary Standing. We are now on the road to Gold so keep an eye out for information on the QHC “Accreditation Olympics”.

Long Service Awards CommitteeHave you received your long service award or are due to receive yours soon? Why not have a say in the planning that celebrates the achievements of staff across the organization?

The Recognition and Celebration committee is currently looking for volunteers to participate and provide input into the 2015 long service awards at QHC.

The long service award is to recognize employees for their dedicated service. Staff members are recognized with a commemorative pin for their continued commitment to QHC beginning at 10 years of service and up. Be a part of the celebrations and help recognize

the outstanding people who work across the organization.

Come Together & Speed-Share with SLT

With two successful ‘Come Together Expos’ done (TMH and BGH), and two more to go (PECMH and NHH), the Project Silo Buster team is excited to an-nounce the next event we hope staff, physicians and volunteers will enjoy. It’s a Valentine’s Day themed event in February called “Speed Sharing with SLT. Members of our Senior Leadership Team will spend an hour over lunchtime at each hospital meeting staff and answering questions in a fun format.

“Our Senior Leadership Team is made up of people who are interesting, intelligent, and pleasant. I think sometimes their title as a Senior Leadership Team member is a barrier to other staff members being comfortable getting to know them,” explains Silo Buster team member and Medical Affairs Co-ordinator Miranda Germani. “Our Speed Sharing event is a great opportunity to become familiar with the individuals who lead our hospital in an informal way.”

The format is a takeoff of speed-dating. Participants will spend two minutes with a member of the senior leadership team asking whatever you would like to know about them, and then when the time is up, you move to the next member of SLT.

Staff members can also enjoy some Valentine’s goodies and play the match-game where you will try to align interesting info about members of the team to the correct person. One description could be: This member of SLT touts “The Exorcist” as their favourite movie.

What is project Silo Busters?

Project Silo Buster is part of the 2014/15 staff en-gagement initiatives. The idea of this project is to create more opportunities to share knowledge and experience at QHC. It’s about stepping outside of our individual or de-partmental “silos”.

Jenn Barrett, Silo Buster and BGH Foundation Director of Development, believes “Our patients and their families deserve the best care possible; and that means working together as a team.”

Silo Buster and Resource Team Leader Chris-tina Barr says the idea is to bring everyone togeth-er, to help break the ice and foster respect of each other’s positions. She believes col-laboration is essential in “working towards one common focus- patients, more productive and efficient processes.”

Fellow Silo Buster and Information Services Technical Applications Specialist Michael Jordan considers collaboration key in making better in-formed decisions. “It also allows staff as a whole to know what’s going on. Sounds like a good start to me!”

Other members of the Project Silo Buster team include: CTC Coordinator Margo Russell-Bird, Occ Health & Safety RN Lois Farnell-Woodman and Volunteer & Spiritual Care Liaison Catherine Walker.

We invite you to show your collaborative spirit by joining the Project Silo Buster team at one of our upcoming Silo-Busting events! More info at: http://myqhc-intranet/project-silo-buster.php.

Discharge planning making a difference at QHCIt takes a team working alongside patients and families to support the transition of our patients to the community. Evidence tells us that discharge to the community to make longer term decisions from there is in the best interest of our patients for many reasons.

This is the premise behind the Home First philosophy. Data from our area shows that more than half of Home First clients remain at home after discharge, deferring their use of valuable long term care (LTC) beds. Our challenge has been guiding and sustaining staff and physicians from avoiding judgements on the need for LTC or discussing this with families before assessment by patient flow in conjunction with CCAC.

As a team we are making great progress recently. While our ALC to LTC numbers fluctuate, we would like to take this time to celebrate a recent record low of only 18 patients waiting for long term care. To put this remarkable improvement into perspective in December 2012 we had 51 patients waiting for LTC.

We would like to acknowledge some of the factors that contribute to this great work:

• Avoidance of judgement on discharge destination• The concept of “slowing down to hurry up” which

means allowing patients the opportunity to improve; to stabilize medically and cognitively and for therapies to do their great work in functional improvement

• Physician collaboration in the above• Team work by all disciplines in mobilizing patients

in the prevention of functional decline• Reduction of catheter use• Home First messaging by all disciplines from the time of admission• Our discharge planning approach and escalation process• Admission diversion in the Emergency Departments• The daily work by our patient flow team, their counselling and support of patients and families• Our relationship with our CCAC partners who together with patient flow create discharge plans that

support patients in going Home First

We need to continue with all of these efforts if we are going to be successful in keeping beds open for acute patient needs. Thank you for your efforts to date and in the future as we strive for a 9% ALC rate. Kudos from Tracy Jordan, Manager, Patient Flow

Kudos to our new video starsI would like to extend my sincere gratitude to our BGH volunteer Judy Hurst and her husband Dick for graciously volunteering as patients for our first surgical video series. Judy’s calm approach and Dick’s comic relief throughout the video shoots made this day a fun adventure and helped us create our first video masterpiece.

Anke Gilmour - Manager of Endoscopy,Surgical Clinics and Perioperative Business

QHC Board of Directors currently has 4 vacanciesQuinte Health Care is currently accepting applications for its volunteer Board of Directors. If you know someone who would be interested in serving our community in a significant way encourage them to apply. They will be part of the team of skilled, experienced and committed members of our community who provide essential leadership, stewardship and oversight to QHC.

If you know someone who’s skills and expertise would be an asset to our Board of Directors, please have them fill out for that is online on our website. If you need more information please contact Julia Byers at 613-969-7400, ext. 2400 or jbyers@qhc.on.ca.

The application deadline is February 27, 2015.

Wellness skating event for QHC staff a smashing successAs part of QHC’s commitment to wellness all QHC staff were invited to the QHC Winter Wellness event that took place on Sunday, January 18 at the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre. Lots of families came to enjoy the event that had free skating and open gym time as well as lots of treats!

A special thanks to wellness team members Breanne Ricketts-Gaber, Susan Lang, Kristen Ricketts, Michelle Bruinsma, Norma Collins, Margo Reid for organizing this fun winter afternoon.