The 2nd Annual Operating Room (OR) vs. X-Ray softball game took place on June 2! Last year, the OR team won by a landslide, but this year, the X-ray department took the win by quite a few points. The games have sparked lively hallway chatter and camaraderie. The departments are now tied 1-1, a rematch is eagerly anticipated. With a larger turnout of players and spectators this year, there’s a lot of excitement about hitting the field again!
There are many approaches to managing pain during labour. At Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, we have many options including supportive coaching, warm baths, changing positions, birthing balls, sterile water injections, entonox, IV narcotics and epidurals. The team of anesthesiologists work closely with our labour and delivery department to offer 24-hour epidural support.
An epidural is administered by an anesthesiologist through a tiny tube “catheter” inserted into your back and sits close to the nerve roots supplying your birth canal. Infusion of numbing medications through the catheter creates an area of numbness mainly between the belly button and thighs and sometimes all the way to your feet. While you may still feel contractions and pressure with a well working epidural depending on the stage of labour, the pain drastically decreases, and you remain alert and awake throughout.
At TBRHSC, after counselling, we encourage every pregnant person in labour to make their own choices about what type of pain relief they prefer as their labour progresses.
Pride Month 2024 is right around the corner, and the Pride Committee at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is excited to announce an entire month of events planned to celebrate the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. These events aim to raise awareness of the issues that are important to patients, families and staff in our Hospital. Check out the attached events calendar and keep an eye on Daily Informed Newsletter throughout the month for more information.
Today, Jeremy Dart of Marathon, Ontario can finally turn his dreams into reality because he received the much-anticipated call this morning that everyone waits for – the call letting him know that he has won the grand prize of $1,627,738 in the May 50/50 draw!
“Me and my wife Shauna celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on May 22nd, and purposely bought our 50/50 ticket that day,” explains Jeremy. We’ve long supported the lottery as we’ve utilized the hospital’s services in the past and it has also been helpful to our family members in times of need.” When asked what plans they have for their winnings, Shauna without hesitation, says, “a new kitchen.” Today, the Dart’s are heading to a Provincial Park in the region, to join their kids, family and friends, where they will now be celebrating their big win.
Proceeds from the Thunder Bay 50/50 monthly draw go towards purchasing essential equipment and treatment options for the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre so more patients can have access to closer to home healthcare. To date, over $40 Million in prizes has been awarded to winners from across Ontario.
“Today, we celebrate our ninth consecutive millionaire,” says Glenn Craig, President and CEO of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation, “surpassing all expectations we had when we initially launched. With each new millionaire, the impact of our lottery grows, making our dreams of expanded programming, including cardiac surgery, soon to be a reality. We are looking forward to making some major announcements this fall.”
June Draw Now Open
June’s draw will feature more chances to WIN with 32 Early Bird draws totalling $70,000 and 18 winners in just the first week! The grand prize draw happens Friday, June 28, 2024. Tickets are now available online at www.thunderbay5050.ca or at our 50/50 Store inside Intercity Shopping Centre. Ticket packages are as follows:
** Tickets must be purchased by 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 27, 2024 to be eligible for the Grand Prize draw on Friday, June 28, at 11:00 a.m.
Questions about the draw can be sent to info@thunderbay5050.ca. Ticket purchasers must be present in Ontario to purchase and 18 years old or older.
The Thunder Bay 50/50 continues each month with the Grand Prize drawn on the last Friday of the month. (2024 Lottery Licence RAF1352142)
Hello, Boozhoo, Bonjour.
I am writing on a sunny afternoon in May, hoping that you have been able to enjoy some of the great weather we have been experiencing. As we transition into much warmer temperatures, we too are transitioning and changing many things here in line with our strategic priorities.
In my March Blog, I had mentioned that we were planning to continue our conversations with various Ministry representatives and dignitaries. Since then, we have had several opportunities to advance discussions about our healthcare issues that are specific to Northwestern Ontario. We had opportunity to host the Honourable Minister Sylvia Jones from the Ministry of Health and MPP Kevin Holland as well as Ontario Health President & CEO, Matthew Anderson and colleagues from Ontario Health North. As the only tertiary care referral centre across all of Northwestern Ontario, our role is critical. Through our various tours, engagements and ongoing conversations, I am confident that we have been able to garner significant support for our role and a better understanding of the needs of our Hospital and Northwestern Ontario.
A major area of transition over the past month, has been some of our key technology systems over to new platforms. While I recognize that change is often difficult, I hope you have begun to adapt and welcome the shift over from StaffRight to UKG Pro Workforce Management and also from GroupWise to Outlook. Many thanks to the teams who supported this work and to all of you who made the changes work! The switch over is intended to make improvements to access and simplify process, in line with improving your experience. I am hopeful that in time that is the result you experience.
As we look to advance our Cultural Awareness – recently the Board of Directors for both the Hospital and the Health Research Institute completed Repairing the Sacred Circle: An Indigenous Cultural Awareness and Education Primer. The session provided information on some of the key foundational concepts that have influenced the historical and current treatment of Indigenous people with healthcare. This regionally specific training aligns to our Strategic Plan 2026 – Providing a culturally safe experience for all patients and staff. Sessions are now available for any staff member wishing to take part. More details can be found here.
Additionally, the Wake the Giant training program has been extended through the 2024/2025 year to further support our goals within our Strategic Plan. While we know that over 66% of our staff have completed the training, we want to ensure we extend our reach and achieve over 90% completion. To find out more details on how you can take a session and apply it to your work, you can access the training session through the Dual Code Learning Management System.
As mentioned in my April Blog, improving staff experience is key to a better patient experience – and we know that having our planned complement of care staff is just the beginning. With the announcement of moving our previously 30 temporary beds to permanent beds, we too have made the decision to ensure we have base staffing increases in line with this permanent bed complement. As such we have added over 40 new base staffing positions to ensure that we are permanently staffing and supporting care on the units. We are pleased to be able to do this to ensure we are better prepared and not reacting to ebbs and flows in patient census. Together with all our new hires to support vacancies, this additional base staffing improvement is intended to enhance and improve the experience for both staff and patients. Look for changes in your base staffing complement coming this month.
We continue to celebrate 20 years of being in our facility and thank all staff and leaders who have contributed stories to highlight our milestones. Throughout the last 20 years our building has experienced a lot of activity throughout our patient care areas and facility wide. As you may have noticed, our patient rooms are starting to show their age and could use an overhaul. I am pleased to announce that we will be conducting an Environmental Refresh within our Hospital, with the first phase being in-patient rooms. Once the patient rooms are completed we will continue to our common areas and then on to other administrative and staff areas. For me, this is an incredibly important project as I strongly believe that our care, experience and environment are linked. As you likely know, I am incredibly proud of the commitment and dedication provided by all of you, each and every day….now we need to provide an environment that mirrors our exceptional people, care and service. We will work to create and bring our environment up to our care and service standards. You will be hearing more about this as the project gets underway this summer.
It is hard to believe that Year Two of our Strategic Plan 2026 is right around the corner. Upcoming events will include a report back on what we have accomplished. As well, recognizing that the work is not possible without our Staff and Professional Staff, we are celebrating your contributions through a Staff Appreciation BBQ – all happening on June 13th. I hope to see your there!
As always, I invite you to provide me your feedback on these blogs or on any other matter. You can contact me at: rhonda.ellacott@tbh.net. I look forward to hearing from you.
Please know that your work is valued and it makes a difference in patient care.
Shared on behalf of Andrea Raynak, Director, Nursing Practice and Learning
Another month of R.E.F.S. Education has been completed. Last month we educated 475 staff members, bringing us to a total of 2,100 staff over four months!
Thank you to the R.E.F.S. Team for your hard work and dedication.
June will focus on Stroke and Dysphagia Management. Please see the attached poster and encourage your staff to attend.
Shared on behalf of Ryan Sears, Director, Capital & Facility Services
Please be advised the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (at the 980 Oliver Road location only) will execute a planned impairment of its entire Overhead Paging System and Fire System on Thursday, June 6, 2024 for approximately four (4) hours – starting at 11:00 p.m. to facilitate project related work for the Renal Pod E renovation.
Our Facilities and Security teams will be enacting and overseeing our Fire System Impairment and Fire Watch procedures, as included in the Fire Plan for our site.
During this impairment, no Hot Work will be authorized. Further, any high risk work that could result in an elevated risk of fire, heat, or smoke should not be planned – please review this within your department and plan to discontinue high-risk activities (i.e. construction, repairs, hot showers, etc.). Should you observe activities that may be of concern during the impairment, contact your Supervisor or Manager to discuss.
While the Hospital’s Overhead Paging System is out of service, alternate measures will be applied to notify the organization of Emergency Codes and Alerts. Staff will continue to activate all Codes using extension 55. Please see the attached policy for guidance.
Key things to remember during an outage:
1. Regularly monitor email for emergency code and alert notices issued by Switchboard.
2. Respond to emergency codes and alerts through alternate communication measures, e.g., paging, radios, emails, runners, etc., as appropriate – and activate response as required.
3. Be vigilant in reviewing department activities during the period of fire system impairment.
4. Clinical leads are encouraged to collaborate with their teams to consider alternatives to paging patients back to units, such as collecting Patients’ mobile phone numbers.
Further, in event of fire during this impairment, please execute all steps as outlined in Code Red Policy (EMER-30) and your area sub plan. Should you discover a fire – “REACT”:
R – Remove persons in immediate danger
E – Ensure doors are closed to confine fire or smoke
A – Activate the fire alarm by pulling the nearest pull station
C– Call Switchboard at Ext 55 to report the location of the fire
T– Try to extinguish the fire if trained to do so or continue to evacuate
The contractor for the fire system work is Troy Life & Fire Safety. The Building System Operator is onsite and reachable at cell number 629-7005. Further support will be provided by Security (684-6509) and the on call Facility Manager (cell number 629-3119) as required.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the above, please contact Ryan Sears.
Shared on behalf of Help Desk
With the transition to Outlook, we need to retire GroupWise Messenger and ask that you start using Webex Messaging.
A reminder that GroupWise Messenger will be retired on June 1, 2024.
Thank you for all the volunteers that have switched to Webex early!
A Webex account has already been created for you, just click on the WebEx application in your Application Launcher
NOTE: WebEx should not be used to communicate personal health information.
See the attached knowledge article for more information on how to use WebEx Messaging. This knowledge article is also available in Help Desk – Self Service.
For more information, contact the Help Desk at help@tbh.net or extension 6411.
Shared on behalf of Phil Thompson, Director, Support Services
Support Services would like to extend an opportunity for departments to purge equipment, furniture, electronics or other items that are of no further use nor will be of any use in future. These items may be brought down to Disposal Alley the first week of June: Tuesday, June 4 to Thursday, June 7.
Please bring items down to ‘Disposal Alley’ (see attached map below) on the day your floor has been assigned below. This is a very busy hallway. In order to keep our hallway safe and avoid congestion, Please adhere to the date assigned to your floor.
Tuesday, June 4 – Third floor, TBRHSC
Wednesday, June 5 – Second floor, TBRHSC
Thursday, June 6 – First floor, TBRHSC (excluding Stores, Maintenance, NFS, MDRD, Housekeeping)
additional information will be provided directly to those managers.
Friday, June 7 – 984 Oliver Road (Professional Building)
