Shared on behalf of Jennifer Fawcett, Director of Academics and Academic Family Health Team

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I am pleased to announce that Cassidy Tackacs has accepted a contract position as Physician Retention and Relations Specialist covering for Samantha Olsen during her leave. 

Cassidy most recently worked as a Human Resources Officer – Recruiter at Dilico Anishinabek Family Care and is a graduate of Lakehead University with an Honours Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing and Human Resources Management).  She brings with her experience in full cycle recruitment and retention activities and exceptional administrative skills. We are thrilled to welcome her to our Medical and Academic Affairs portfolio where she will work alongside Laurel Knowles, Physican Recruitment Specialist and Dr. William Harris as he transitions to the role of Associate Vice President, Physician Recruitment and Retention.

Cassidy begins on Monday, May 12, 2025. Some of her early priorities will be updating and strengthening our physician orientation processes and follow up, and continuing to expand retention activities in a strategic way. She will continue to support physician payment processes as well and we hope to lean into her marketing background to continue improving our communication opportunities. 

Please join us in welcoming Cassidy to our team!

Shared on behalf of Chad Johnson, Director – Pre-hospital and Trauma, Emergency, Critical Care, Respiratory Services, and NLOT

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We are pleased to announce that Jill Douglas will be joining our team as an Administrative Assistant in the Emergency Department starting Monday, May 12, 2025.

Jill brings over 15 years of experience in administrative roles, with a strong background in both healthcare and business administration. Most recently, she served as Assistant Office Manager at Sullivan + Associates Clinical Psychology, where she managed office operations, coordinated schedules, processed payroll, and maintained confidential medical records.

Contact information:

Workspace location	ED Administration, office # 2847
Telephone – internal	# 6115
Telephone – external	# 807-684-6115
E-mail	Jill.Douglas@tbh.net

As we welcome Jill to her new position, please join me in celebrating Lisa Begin’s great accomplishments and upcoming experiences in retirement.  Lisa has worked at the Hospital for 25 years, and her final day of work is Friday, May 30, 2025.

Shared on behalf of Human Resources

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Do you have a favourite memory from working in healthcare? A story that brings a smile to your face? Whether it’s an accomplishment you’re proud of, a touching moment with a patient or a kind gesture from a coworker – we want to help you share it!

From May 5 to May 18, enter our Voices of Healthcare contest on Instagram by sharing a story from your life at work. You’ll get a chance to win a $100 Sobeys gift card and the joy of reliving your special healthcare moment.

Learn more here.

An inclusive work environment is important for all employees to feel valued and respected. But, sometimes even the best efforts go sideways. This webinar will cover what you can do to nurture authentic relationships with Indigenous workers that effectively build a culture where everyone prospers.  Learn about:

• What allyship with Indigenous People is
• How allyship can go wrong
• Strategies to avoid accidental harm in allyship
• Ways to build strong and effective allied relationships with Indigenous People

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 from 10:30 to noon 

Sign up here

Interested, but can’t attend? Sign up anyway and you’ll receive a link to the recording that you can watch at any time.

This event is hosted by Superior Mental Wellness @ Work, a collaborative community project coordinated by the Thunder Bay District Health Unit. It will be facilitated by Ashley Jellema of Koru Consulting in Thunder Bay. 

The Maternity Centre at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) provides prenatal care for the residents of Thunder Bay and surrounding region. Our team is committed to providing evidence-based maternity care that is safe, respectful and culturally sensitive.

Self-referral can be made to be seen by a Nurse Practitioner, Family Medicine Physician, Social Worker, Kinesiologist, Dietician, and Lactation Consultant.

To be seen by an Obstetrician, a referral is needed from your primary health care provider or midwife.

During pregnancy, you are welcome to call the Maternity Centre to schedule an appointment with one of our prenatal care providers. All of our programs are accessible with your Ontario health card.

TBRHSC’s Maternity Centre welcomes the 108 babies born at our Hospital during the month of April. Congratulations on the new bundles of joy!

Find out more about our services by visiting bit.ly/TBRHSC-Maternity-Centre.

(Via TBNewswatch.com)

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre finds success in gathering patient feedback from SMS-based surveys

Can a text message help improve patient care? The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is betting that it can.

The hospital is the first in Ontario to adopt a text message-based patient survey distribution.

The hospital has seen a two per cent increase in people responding to surveys since switching to SMS (Short Message Service, the technology behind text messages) said Shannon Schiffer, Manager of Patient and Family Centred Care.

“SMS really helped reduce some barriers. So, say for those patient populations that maybe don’t check their emails regularly or maybe they don’t have reliable internet or access to a computer. We decided, it’s really important to meet patients where they’re at,” said Schiffer.

“Patient experience surveys are so critical to our hospital.,” she said. “They offer direct insight into how patients are perceiving their care and help us really determine improvements to quality and safety.”

“This is really our ability to give our patients a voice in their care and ensuring that we’re operating from a patient and family-centered care philosophy.”

Before using text message surveys, the hospital primarily used email surveys to gather patient feedback, but Schiffer said there were “some barriers” to that approach.

“There was some difficulty in asking patients for email, and there was also some hesitancy on the patient’s perspective on providing email,” said Schiffer.

She said the registration clerks were often questioned about the hospital’s safety and security policy in collecting personal information.

“It was something that our security ITS were all involved in to ensure that there’s no risk to patient information,” said Schiffer.

Other barriers Schiffer found were the limits email had on getting real-time information back quickly.

“It’s a more modern, accessible and efficient way to capture the patient’s experience. Patients are able to fill out the surveys shortly after their experience, so their memory is still fresh. And, it enables us to identify those opportunities for improvement and in real-time quality improvement,” said Schiffer.

Shared on behalf of Infection Prevention and Control

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A respiratory outbreak has been declared at TBRHSC , TCU-Transitional Care Unit, located at Hogarth Riverview Manor as of May 03, 2025. All restrictions are in place. 

Outbreak #2262-2025-00057 

As always, our number one priority is the safety of patients and their families, staff and visitors. All patients identified as having an exposure to this outbreak have been isolated with appropriate additional precautions. New admissions will not be sent to the unit until the outbreak is declared over. Essential Care Partners will only be permitted on a case by case basis, following the process outlined in the Care Partner/ Essential Care Partner Guidance Document. 

Infection Prevention and Control encourages everyone to continue applying routine practices of hand hygiene, proper use of PPE, cleaning shared equipment and the appropriate screening of all patients. Please set an example to staff and students and assist us by maintaining compliance and due diligence.  

For more information, contact Infection Prevention and Control at 807-684-6094 

UPDATE MAY 5, 2025 – TECHNICAL ISSUES HAVE BEEN RESOLVED

Issues were resolved as of the afternoon of Friday, May 2. Please continue to submit job applications through e-Recruit as usual. 

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Please be advised that we are currently experiencing a technical issue affecting the receipt of applications for job postings through our posting software e-Recruit. The issue has been reported and both IT and the vendor have been actively working today to identify and resolve the problem.

As a precaution, Human Resources has held off on publishing any new job postings and will continue to do so until the issue is fully resolved. We will keep you updated as we receive further information and will notify you once the issue is resolved.

Thank you for your understanding and patience. If you have any questions, or wish to check the status of an application submitted, please contact Human Resources.