June, 2011

Message from: Angèle Brunelle, Chair, Board of Directors, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre

The pace of activity at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre continues to be busy. Along with serving people with acute care needs, we are also engaging our partners in the preparation of a new Strategic Plan, welcoming four representatives from Accreditation Canada, completing the renewal of the Angioplasty suite, and expanding our Patient and Family Centred Care strategies, to name a few.

The development of our Strategic Plan is going smoothly. Our process of engagement enables us to receive comprehensive feedback from stakeholders that we intend to apply. These partners are giving us a clearer direction on the services that we will strive to deliver. We are excited about the potential of our role during the next four years as we enable people to enjoy better health. Our process of engaging our partners is helping us accomplish what we feel are achievable goals. We will be “Healthy Together”.

As we emerge as a leader in the healthcare industry, one of our corporate challenges is identifying leaders that will help us achieve our goals. While at the Annual Retirement Celebration, I was reminded how these valued employees helped us get to where we are. Furthermore, the upcoming Long Service Awards will reinforce that thought again as I meet hundreds of staff honoured for their commitment to our patients and families. There is a range of five years to fourty years of service. It will be impressive.

As we celebrate another Annual General Meeting, the review of the year-end reports shows that we have made significant advances in a number of areas. We collectively overcame a number of challenges and turned them into opportunities. One example is the construction of our second Angioplasty Lab and related Recovery space. For years, people from Northwestern Ontario have gone elsewhere to receive appropriate Angioplasty Service, yet now can receive this care closer to home. I have spoken to people who say that they owe their lives to our care providers. The Cardiac Suite should be completed this summer, ahead of schedule and under-budget. If people only knew how complicated the project was. It is amazing, really, that this complicated plan could be brought to fruition without interrupting the delivery of care, nearby. It is a tribute to the professionalism of everyone involved.

In addition, I must commend our teams for providing care while we were in Gridlock: simply stated, the number of times that we had more patients than beds available. Recently, the frequency of Gridlock being called has been decreasing. That means that our patient “flow-through” has been better. Our teams are preparing patients to go home, as planned, and our healthcare partners are taking patients in a timely manner. This change in patient and family outcomes is very satisfying.

Finally, I want to thank two members of our Board of Directors who are retiring from our ranks. Stella Rose Osawamick-Hogan and Ron Nelson have served us well. We will miss you greatly.

I wish everyone an enjoyable summer.

Respectfully,

Angèle Brunelle, Chair
Board of Directors