Board Chair Message - January 2009

I have been reflecting on the tremendous year we had at TBRHSC last year. It was exemplary. We were honoured as a leader in healthcare on a number of fronts. Just before Christmas, we received national attention for being the Canadian leader in low mortality rates. What that means is that when patients are in our care, we perform at very high standards. I find that particularly gratifying because anyone who follows healthcare data knows that we have high rates per capita of Cardiac, Cancer, and Renal disease, to name three. In other words, we exceeded expectations by a greater measure than the numbers indicated. Well done, everyone! Congratulations to our physicians, staff, and volunteers who continue to provide great care.

Secondly, our Telemedicine strategies are being recognized as a “world standard”. You probably heard that our Northwestern Ontario Regional Stroke Network has received an award to pursue “closer to home” rehabilitation studies. The thinking is that, just as we won the prestigious national “Ted Freedman Award” for our Cardiac Rehabilitation Program for regional patients receiving care near home, we should also be able to excel at providing rehabilitation for people with stroke in their community, as required. Our healthcare teams will partner with professionals in the region to achieve desired results. It is gratifying to hear patient and family stories of people who have been able to stay at home and yet receive assessment, counsel, and care from the teams working at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. It is clear that we are interdependent. We need one another to meet the healthcare needs in Northwestern Ontario. Together, we have done well.

Finally, on behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to say how disappointed I am with the decision of the Local Health Integration Network to do a peer review to “Help Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre to Balance Its Budget”. For the record, we have balanced our budget four years running. We will balance our budget this year, as well. All the while, we have been over 100% occupancy meeting the demands of acute care and alternate levels of care. That deserves a round of applause for our physicians, staff and volunteers.

Yes, we welcome anyone who can make suggestions to improve our level of performance. That is how we become “best practice”. We do it all the time. We seek the best minds in the business to give us advice. Fortunately, many of the best minds work for us at TBRHSC. That is why I can say on behalf of the members of our TBRHSC Board of Directors, our vote in support of our healthcare teams is unanimous! Our opinion is that it is unfortunate that the LHIN has been so slow to solve the Alternate Level of Care (ALC) issue while demanding that we cover for its lack of action on the matter. Ours is an issue of capacity. We are mandated to look after acute patients. If we only had to look after acute patients, our 2009/2010 budget would be fine. I’ve talked to leaders of our hospitals throughout the region of Northwestern Ontario about how they are being asked to balance their budgets. Like us, they have to contend with inflation and increased costs for medical products, as well as centrally bargained union agreements – all the while balancing their budgets. As a point of fact, to balance budgets, hospitals that are already fiscally lean have to consider service cutbacks.

People who work with the budget planning process know that these are difficult times for everyone. May we all seek strategies that optimize patient care.

Thank you for your continued support.

Ingrid Parkes, Chair
Board of Directors

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