Dear Staff, Professional Staff, Learners, Volunteers, Researchers, and Board members

Greetings, Boozhoo and Bonjour,

I would like to begin this month’s blog by acknowledging the information we have learned as Canadians regarding the discovery of 215 children in a mass grave at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia.

Flags at Thunder Bay Regional Health sciences Centre (TBRHSC) will be flown at half-mast from May 31 to June 8 to honour them. The flags will remain lowered one hour for each child whose life was taken, and in memory of the thousands who are survivors of residential schools, for those who never returned, and in honour of the families whose lives were forever changed.

I know there are many people in our city and region who have been personally impacted by the residential school era, and that this horrific latest news may cause you a great deal of mental health challenges. I encourage you strongly to utilize our internal resources that are there for all staff. For former students and others impacted, a National Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day at 1-866-925-4419.

Reconciliation with the Indigenous community is a priority for our Hospital. In line with the Truth and Reconciliation direction, “…reconciliation requires that a new vision, based on a commitment to mutual respect, be developed. It also requires an understanding that the most harmful impacts of residential schools have been the loss of pride and self-respect of Aboriginal people, and the lack of respect that non-Aboriginal people have been raised to have for their Aboriginal neighbours. Reconciliation is not an Aboriginal problem; it is a Canadian one”.  Our Hospital is working to make changes that are aligned with the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations. We will work to create a safe and responsive environment for all Indigenous people.

COVID-19

As the Covid-19 pandemic has evolved into a more manageable stable state, we have been assessing opportunities to consider our future operations going forward. We recognize the need to be nimble and rapidly respond to a potential escalation and changing needs, while managing the organizational operations into a steady state. To facilitate a successful transition for Covid-19 management going forward, we have worked together with IMT (Incident Management Team) to engage in options for a transition plan. Given that Covid-19 will likely remain a part of our daily lives for some time to come, and recognizing our current state, the choice was made to shift IMT leadership to Senior Leadership. This transition places operational management of our Covid-19 response in our patient care portfolio under the leadership of Dr. Peter Voros, while enabling the continued support for the response from the organization through the Senior Leadership Team.

To support the transition, we have initiated daily operational situation updates to replace IMT updates. This transition is intended to ensure the full engagement of the organization in the careful planning, communication, and responsiveness to changing needs with Covid-19, while recognizing the shift to senior leadership for decision making. We will assess the shift in structure and continually look for your input into decisions through the regular dyad operational model.

As we shift gears, I would like to recognize the incredible work done through IMT and call out a recent notable change. Given the feedback and stories received from a number of our patients, families, and staff, the team engaged at many levels to assess the Essential Care Partner policy and process. Through discussion with Ethics, Infection Prevention and Control, and so many others, the recommendation was made to support the inclusion of one Essential Care Partner for each patient in hospital. The journey has been challenging, yet the outcome will dramatically change the experience of care for so many going forward. It is decisions like these that have a profound and life altering impact upon so many individuals. Thank you again to the team for listening to the stories, assessing the risks and benefits, and supporting a changing environment that leads to positive feedback.  

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who participated and contributed over the past 15 months for your strong commitment, expertise, and leadership. While we continue to manage Covid in our community and organization, we hope that we have reached a more manageable steady state that enables transition forward.

Strategic Planning

Our Strategic Plan 2026 is well under way with stakeholder engagement providing some very good inputs and perspectives. While we continue to refine and identify key areas of focus, we have seen some significant themes emerging. High-level areas for further development include the following: 

On behalf of the Hospital and the Research Institute, I would like to thank everyone for their participation and input. Your voice helps us to ensure we create a roadmap that will have a profound impact on health outcomes in our community and our region. We hope that by the end of June 2021, we will have landed on our high-level themes for action planning and indicator development over the summer period.

Organizational Structure Changes

As we challenge ourselves to evolve as an organization and focus on our strategic priorities going forward, we are engaging in a process to ensure we are aligned to best affect the needed strategy and changes at the senior level. As a first phase of this, I have posted the EVP Patient Experience role to replace the operational leadership vacancy left through the restructured EVP medical role. In this phase, we will recruit an EVP Patient Experience to work in collaborative partnership with EVP Inpatient Programs to lead all patient programs and services operationally. This shift is done with cost savings and a longer term view to the potential integration of nursing leadership into this modelling. Once this critical staff recruitment is complete, the senior leadership team will work to engage in a more fulsome operational model that will seek to enhance quality while streamlining leadership that models the patient journey and supports the overall strategic priorities of the organization.

Final Thoughts

June is Pride Month, and TBRHSC is showing its support by raising the Progress Pride flag in recognition and demonstration of our commitment to a kind, accepting, and inclusive culture for all.

In terms of the pandemic, while we are certainly not without challenges, we are moving closer to a steady state as a Health Sciences Centre and Research Institute. Previously the epicentre of the pandemic in Ontario, we are now doing our part to serve other regions who were once in our situation. With cases down and vaccination rates improving, we are able to slowly increase surgeries and procedures and return to something closer to normal. We are vigilant and cautious, but optimistic that we may be approaching our new normal hospital environment for some time to come.

The timing couldn’t be better as we start to ramp up outreach and planning involved with developing our Strategic Plan 2026 – a crucial document for the ‘recovery’ period. I must commend everyone involved with moving this forward the past few months during some of the worst parts of the pandemic regionally. I know this wasn’t easy and want to thank everyone for their attention.

In closing, my heartfelt thanks to you all for stepping up when we needed you most – supporting the organization and our many asks, working outside your comfort zone – all in the name of patient care, and in support of one another. Together, your efforts have supported our movement toward recovery while ‘flattening the curve’ in our area and beyond. Your outstanding efforts have made THE DIFFERENCE! On behalf of the entire organization, we recognize and greatly appreciate everything you do to support us all in these unprecedented times.

Please continue to stay safe and be well.

As summer approaches, I do hope each and every one of you can enjoy some time to refresh and rejuvenate. It’s been a tough year, and I am hopeful that you are able to enjoy the things that make you smile.

I welcome comments on this blog or any other matter. You can reach me at: crockerelr@tbh.net.

Here is the Professional Staff Calendar for June 2021. Any revisions made to the calendar will be posted to the Intranet and to the bulletin board in the Professional Staff Lounge.

Q&A with Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre’s Ron Turner

(Originally published in the June 2021 edition of The Walleye Magazine)

Managing the COVID-19 pandemic has meant a lot of planning at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre over the past year-plus. However, those plans also have to be put into action in a timely, organized manner if they are to be successful. That’s where Ron Turner comes in. He is the Director of Acute Medicine, Stroke, and Seniors Programs at the Hospital, and is currently acting as the operations section lead on the Health Sciences Centre’s COVID-19 Incident Management Team. We spoke with Turner about how this process works, what kinds of changes they’ve had to make, and how he feels the hospital is set to react should we see another spike in COVID cases.

The Walleye: What’s involved putting a pandemic action plan into place?

Ron Turner: As soon as changes in ministry directives or process gaps or mitigation strategies are identified for action, the IMT [the COVID incident management team] planning section develops a response plan that is presented to IMT for approval. Once that’s approved, the plans are then handed over to the operations section, which consists of representation from programs and services across the organization. From there, stakeholders are engaged to assist in the execution of the plan. […] So what the plan is, and how detailed or how far-reaching it is, depends on who’s engaged in that process. Oftentimes, those stakeholders are engaged in the development of the plan. But sometimes, once we get to the implementation piece, we need to sort of reach out a little bit more broadly, also [making] sure we’re communicating the change, and that if there’s education required to support the change, that that happens. Then we reach out to logistics to pull in the pieces—for example, if equipment is needed, if staff is needed, those pieces are coordinated.

TW: What are some things that you’ve had to implement?

RT: It’s a pretty extensive list. We’ve operationalized procedures for staff, patient, and visitor screening, COVID-19 assessment and vaccination processes, and infection control protocols. We supported critical care capacity planning—the creation of the COVID-19 inpatient unit was a significant piece of work that we had to undertake. That’s really just naming a few. The IMT operations section has been involved at some level in every activity associated with the hospital’s response to the pandemic, so as little as a small change in current policy, to the way we isolate patients who have COVID-19.

TW: What was involved in setting up the dedicated ward for COVID patients?

RT: We had to make sure the unit had boundaries in order to make sure it was a closed environment in order to maintain infection control. We also needed to coordinate staff so there were specific staff who were specifically dedicated to the area. There was ensuring that that staff had the appropriate education to care for this specific patient population. And then, once patients are in a unit in the hospital, they don’t necessarily stay in that unit—they’re often transferred to other departments—so how do we maintain infection control principles while they’re going to DI [diagnostic imaging], for example, or other areas in the hospital that they might need to attend during their admission?

TW: How confident are you in the hospital’s ability to handle any future spike in cases? [Editor’s note: This interview was conducted in early May, while case number in the Thunder Bay district were in decline.]

RT: There is a very robust pandemic response plan in place that looks at ICU [intensive care unit] capacity and how we can surge outside of the ICU into other areas and still support that level of care. Aligned with that is a comprehensive staffing plan, so that we can ensure that the skill set of healthcare providers are managing those types of patients, so there’s been a lot of work up front. Some of this was in place before the pandemic in preparation for the event that we were ever having to have to use it, but this has been a great opportunity, and I’m really proud of the fact that the hospital has remained so nimble and that we’re able to change on a dime as need arises locally and then across the province. We really have been able to shift our focus in order to make sure we’re addressing the most critical needs of patients.

Lauren Whitburn of Mary Kay Cosmetics and her local Thunder Bay unit, Inspire, put together some unscented hand cream donations for all of the Admitting and Screening staff at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre in recognition of their hard work and dedication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you Lauren for this generous gift!

June is Stroke Month and the Northwestern Ontario Regional Stroke Network wants to thank all our regional partners in Northwestern Ontario for their dedication in providing quality stroke care to patients and their families. If you know someone who works in stroke care, please show your support by thanking them for everything they do!

The Rehabilitation department is in need of tin coffee cans for patient therapy exercise programs.

Please drop off cleaned coffee cans can be dropped off to the 1st floor Rehabilitation/Physiotherapy reception area.

For more information, contact Krista Henson, Rehabilitation Assistant at ext. 6270.

Flags at Thunder Bay Regional Health sciences Centre and Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute will be flown at half-mast from May 31st to June 8th to honour the lives of 215 children found in a mass grave at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. The flags will remain lowered for one hour for every child whose life was taken, and in memory of the thousands of children who were sent to residential schools, for those who never returned, and in honour of the families whose lives were forever changed.

From May 30 – June 5, employees are encouraged to leave their car at home as part of the Commuter Challenge. The Commuter Challenge is a weeklong, national challenge between work places to motivate employees to think about their usual commute to work. Trying new modes of getting to and from work, other than driving alone, promotes sustainable transportation and reduced air pollution.

There are many options to take part in the Commuter Challenge. Try cycling, walking, inline skating, skateboarding, running, or other activities. Choosing active ways to commute has benefits including increased cardiovascular fitness; muscular strength and endurance; and reduced risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer. If you are working from home, you are helping the environment by skipping the commute all together, but you can still get active and participate in the Challenge. The fresh air can also be an excellent way to clear your mind before you start or end a long work day.

Commuter Challenge Sign-Up Instructions:

1. Go to https://commuterchallenge.ca/
2. Select “Employee” on the right hand side
3. Location: Fill in Ontario and Thunder Bay
4. Individual Details: scroll down to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. Do not register as a new workplace
5. Create a log in name and password you will remember
6. Log in every day and select the day, mode of transportation, and distance on the right to track your progress!
7. Check out other individuals and workplaces around town to see how you compare!