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 144 babies born at our Hospital during the month of August. Congratulations on the new bundles of joy!

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

What is World Patient Safety Day?

In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) Member States endorsed the establishment of World Patient Safety Day (WPSD), to take place annually on September 17. The primary objective of WPSD is to enhance the understanding of patient safety on a global scale. This significant day encourages patients, families, health care workers, health care leaders, and policy makers to work collaboratively towards co-designing health care policies and safety interventions that truly reflect the needs and preferences of patients and families.

WPSD 2025

Recognizing the vulnerability of the newborn and paediatric populations when it comes to risks and harm caused by unsafe care, this year’s WPSD is dedicated to the theme of Safe Care for Every Newborn and Every Child. Specifically, WPSD 2025 aims to:

1. Raise global awareness of safety risks in paediatric and newborn care in all health care settings, emphasizing the specific needs of children, families and caregivers.
2. Mobilize governments, health care organizations, professional bodies and civil society to implement sustainable strategies for safer care for newborns and children, as part of broader patient safety and quality initiatives.
3. Empower parents, caregivers and children in patient safety by promoting education, awareness and active participation in care.
4. Advocate for strengthening research on patient safety in paediatric and newborn care.

By shining the spotlight on the significance of safe care for every newborn and child, this is helping to build trust and promoting the delivery of high quality care.

Webinar – Paediatric Pain Management

The Health Standards Organization (HSO) released the first national health standard for Paediatric Pain Management, which recognizes preventable, untreated, and unmanaged pain as a patient safety incident. Foundational to the principles of the standard are four transformative goals:

1. Make pain matter
2. Make pain understood
3. Make pain visible
4. Make pain better

Interested in learning more about paediatric pain management?

Register for the webinar below through the following link: Webinar Registration – Zoom

Webinar description: Explore how integrated, people-centred strategies can transform pediatric pain management across sectors and care teams. Look at new ways to manage pain for children, combining pharmacological and other approaches, with a strong emphasis on family involvement and co-design to ensure pain management is equitable and individualized. 

Children deserve equitable, consistent, and safe standards of care—right from the start. 

Due to ongoing construction of the CVS expansion, effective today (Friday, September 5, 2025), the Level 2 exit of Stairwell F will be closed for the remainder of construction. 

During this time, in the event of an emergency all personnel are instructed to proceed down to the Level 1 corridor and continue to the Stairwell G emergency exit at Level 2, see route depicted below – signage will be updated accordingly. Departmental sub-plans have been updated to reflect this change.

Following the terrazzo repairs in the cafeteria servery, Phase 8B repair work will occur in the area of seating at the west end of the cafeteria (near the grand staircase).  This will close off normal access from the East Entrance and within the cafeteria back to the main corridor.  Please see attached map.

To help reduce congestion during daytime hours, staff are asked to avoid travelling through the area via the servery, as much as possible.  To help with this, the card swipe on the Stair-I exterior door will be reactivated for staff entry (and exit, per usual).   Although the servery space can be used for circulation to the seating area, accessing seating via Elevator-01 at the East Entrance, would be appreciated.  Apologies for the inconvenience.

**Please note that access through the servery will only be available during the operating hours of the servery.  From 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., there will be NO ACCESS through the servery or cafeteria from the main corridor to the East Entrance.  Please use alternate routes during these hours.

Per previous, work will be occurring overnight from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and fencing will be placed around the work area for the duration of the timeframe to protect the area and equipment, and to ensure the safety of staff, patients and visitors.  

IMPACTS:
Daytime hours – 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.: Access from, to and through the cafeteria seating area is open
Evening hours – 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.: There will NO ACCESS through the servery or cafeteria to the East Entrance- Stair-I can be used as an entry and exit point from Monday, September, 8 at 8:30 a.m. to Monday, September, 15 at 8:30 a.m.

NO IMPACTS: Access to the Grand Staircase will remain open at all times

If you have any questions, please contact Kristi Judge is Capital Planning, at x.7031 or kristi.judge@tbh.net or Darin Pretto at x.6205 or darin.pretto@tbh.net.

A national initiative to improve Indigenous youth mental health, co-led by local researcher Dr. Chris Mushquash, has secured an additional $10.8 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Dr. Mushquash, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Mental Health and Addiction; Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lakehead University; Vice President Research at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre; and Chief Scientist at Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute, and Dr. Srividya Iyer, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Youth, Mental Health, and Learning Health Systems and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, are co-leading the four-year project focused on building a trust-based learning network across Canada to support culturally-grounded mental health services for Indigenous youth.

Indigenous youth in Canada face significant mental health challenges, such as intergenerational trauma, cultural disconnect, increased poverty, and limited access to health services, often due to geographic location and systemic barriers. Despite these challenges, Indigenous youth have strong connections to culture, community, and land, which are powerful protective factors that promote well-being.

As part of the ACCESS Open Minds Indigenous Youth Mental Health and Wellness Network, this initiative will strengthen capacity amongst Indigenous communities and integrated youth services (IYS) networks to deliver inclusive, high-quality, culturally and contextually relevant, and responsive mental health services with, and for, Indigenous youth. The project is guided by the strength of multigenerational teaching and brings together Elders, Knowledge Holders, youth, families, and community leaders, including Dilico Anishinabek Family Care, who serve 13 First Nations across northwest Ontario.

“This is an incredible opportunity for our network to help close critical gaps by cultivating a trust-based, collaborative learning environment across Canada,” said Dr. Mushquash. “With this investment, we can translate knowledge into real-life improvements for Indigenous youth, ensuring that services are more culturally grounded, accessible, and responsive to community needs. Being able to co-lead this work from northwestern Ontario, and specifically Thunder Bay, is deeply significant, as it reflects both the challenges and strengths of the communities we serve.”

The project will utilize various forms of data, including stories, lived experiences, cultural teachings, and images, to guide and strengthen its work. Its goals are to build community capacity, nurture the next generation of Indigenous and allied leaders, and weave Indigenous knowledge systems into service delivery. The interdisciplinary research team also aims to advance approaches rooted in Indigenous worldviews and values. Through these efforts, the network will help empower Indigenous communities and support partner organizations in delivering high-quality, culturally grounded care, while fostering sustainable development and ongoing learning.

“Lakehead University is committed to serving the communities we are proud to be part of, and that includes driving progress through research to improve health outcomes for Indigenous youth here in northwestern Ontario and across Canada,” said Dr. Langis Roy, Vice-President, Research and Innovation at Lakehead University. “This project demonstrates the vital role universities play in advancing knowledge, fostering innovation, and partnering with communities to create meaningful, lasting change in society.”

The Government of Canada, through CIHR and Indigenous Services Canada, and its partners, the Graham Boeckh Foundation (GBF) and Bell-GBF Partnership, is investing more than $30 million over four years in the Integrated Youth Services Network of Networks (IYS-Net) to strengthen and expand research across Canada. An innovative approach to youth-focused mental health, IYS provides youth with equitable access to a range of services and supports that contribute to health. This includes mental health and substance use services, alongside primary care, peer support, work and study supports, and more.

Privacy is a fundamental right of every Ontarian. To protect this right, public institutions, which handle personal health information, are required to abide by the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA). As an organization governed by PHIPA, all TBRHSC employees and affiliates are obligated to safeguard patient privacy by limiting the collection, use, and disclosure of patient information to that which is necessary to provide care.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of Ontario is the provincial body, which provides oversight of Ontario’s access and privacy laws. The IPC has legal authority to ensure Health Information Custodians (and their agents), which includes TBRHSC, comply with the provisions of the legislation. One of these obligations involves reporting privacy breaches to the IPC for their further review and action if need be.

Role of the Privacy Officer:        

• Promote Confidentiality and Privacy
• Provide guidance on privacy policies, procedures and legislation
• Orient new staff and provide privacy training to all staff
• Conduct Privacy Audits and Breach Investigations
• Advise staff on matters of privacy, confidentiality and consent

Privacy Breaches occur when personal information is collected, retained, used or disclosed in ways that are not in accordance with the provisions of the Acts, (PHIPA, FIPPA, MFIPPA).

Your Responsibility:

Your personal responsibility is to safeguard patient and organizational privacy in all aspects of your job, and outside of the organization by limiting the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Health Information to only that which is required to provide care or complete assigned work

Change in Reporting Privacy breaches should no longer be logged through the Hospital’s Safety Reporting system. Instead, any privacy questions or concerns can be directed to the Privacy Officer via phone at 807-684-6988, by email at TBRHSC.Privacy@tbh.

The next phase of terrazzo repairs will begin on Thursday, September 4^th and will impact the cafeteria servery. 

There is no impact to access to/within the cafeteria seating area.  Please see attached map.
The servery will be open on Thursday, September 4th until 3:00 p.m., however, after 2:00 p.m. there will be a limited menu. It will re-open on Monday morning for normal operating hours.  Notification will be issued should this change.  Apologies for the inconvenience.

Per previous, work will be occurring overnight from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and fencing will be placed around the work area for the duration of the timeframe to protect the area and equipment, and to ensure the safety of staff, patients and visitors.  

IMPACTS

• Closure of the Cafeteria Servery 

If you have any questions, please contact Kristi Judge is Capital Planning, at x.7031 or kristi.judge@tbh.net or Darin Pretto at x.6205 or darin.pretto@tbh.net.