Gain the essential skills to deal with crisis situations with confidence, preserving the overall quality of patient service.

All current Non-Violent Crisis Intervention (NVCI) Full Provider courses running are in in Auditorium A/B (3rd Floor – TBRHSC).

Learn how to handle assaultive, disruptive, and out-of-control behaviour through a combination of verbal, non-verbal and physical intervention skills to enable you to control crisis situations even during the most violent moments.

Program Features:

• Prevention & verbal de-escalation skills
• Disengagement safety techniques
• Continuing education credits
• Trauma-informed training
• Risk assessment framework
• Physical intervention techniques

Register here.

Infused with Heart & Stroke’s 2020 Guidelines for CPR and ECC, our new BLS (Basic Life Support) program offers an engaging and flexible new way of learning. In this course, you will learn the fundamental skills of high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for victims of all ages. You will practice delivering these skills as a single rescuer and as a member of a multi-rescuer team.

The next session will be held:

Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location: TBRHSC Auditorium A (Room 3021A / 3rd Floor)

The skills you learn in BLS will enable you to:

• Recognize a cardiac arrest
• Activate the emergency response system early
• Respond quickly and confidently
• Perform high-quality single-rescuer CPR and multi-rescuer team CPR

This course will ensure people in cardiac arrest have the best chance of survival. Click here to register.

Join Annette Klement, Traditional Wellness Lead, for a special Lunch and Learn event with Elder Melissa Ahmoo. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn and deepen your understanding of what an Elder is, their importance and how they can provide guidance.

Where: ICP Main, Room 2178 (2nd floor)

Date: Thursday, March 12, 2026

Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. 

Bring your appetites as pizza will be provided. To register, please email Annette Klement, Traditional Wellness Lead at Annette.Klement@net.

We look forward to seeing you there!

At Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC), the Patient and Family Centred Care (PFCC) philosophy guides everything that we do, with the goal of delivering exceptional care for every patient every time.

The PFCC department is continuously evaluating strategies to support the delivery of quality patient and family centred care at TBRHSC. These strategies include the use of standardized patient experience surveys (PES) to monitor and evaluate the patient experience. The PES was developed by the Ontario Hospital Association and is utilized to drive quality improvement initiatives for leaders and decision makers at TBRHSC, as well as compare the organization’s performance relative to peer hospitals in Ontario. To garner its effectiveness, the use of PES data at TBRHSC is highly dependent on how accessible and comprehensible the resulting reports are for leaders and decision makers.

Using a survey of coordinators, managers and directors at TBRHSC, PFCC was able to gather feedback on the usefulness of the current patient experience reporting process to understand how this data is used in practice. 24 leaders and decision makers were surveyed to report on the effectiveness of dashboards showing real-time data of performance indicators, bi-weekly reports on text comments from discharged patients, and quarterly score cards showing results from PES questions.

On February 6, 2026, PFCC’s Hafsa Siddiqui (Data Specialist) and Joanita Nakimuli (Discharge Transition Lead, Patient Advocate) had the pleasure of presenting the outcome of this project at the St. Joseph’s Care Group Centre for Applied Health Research Showcase. The survey of participating leaders showed that dashboards and patient feedback reports are timely, easy to interpret and easy to explain to others. Of note, participants identified competing organizational priorities as a potential barrier to this strategy.

Overall, a survey of hospital leaders and decision makers indicated that patient experience data is useful for setting quality improvement priorities and monitoring progress over time, aiding in the focused undertaking of key performance indicators.

Shared on behalf of Ryan Sears, Director, Capital & Facility Services

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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, March 12, 2026 for approximately eight (8) hours – starting at 11:00 PM to facilitate project related work for the MDRD 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 807-629-7005. Further support will be provided by Security (684-6509) and the on call Facility Manager (cell number 807-629-3119) as required. 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the above, please contact Ryan Sears. 

Obituary via Arbor Memorial

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Ms. Lori-Anne Byerley, 57, passed away peacefully on Friday, February 6, 2026, in her home on Surprise Lake, after a long-fought battle with kidney disease.

Born in Thunder Bay at the Port Arthur General Hospital, Lori was a very well-educated young woman who enjoyed her many years spent in university, graduating University of Manitoba with Bachelors in English and Arts as well as graduating Lakehead University with Masters in Social Work. Lori started her career of social work in Manitouwadge then moved her life back to Thunder Bay and cherished her career as a social worker at TBRHSC in the Renal Department. She loved and was loved by her patients and will be missed by everyone who knew her.

Lori loved to travel the world, bringing her family to see France, Ukraine, Poland, Portugal, Mexico, Peru, Cuba and even walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. She was very active in her life with boxing, swimming, driving, and was even a yoga instructor. She enjoyed camping, fishing, canning and spending her time with family, especially being outdoors. Lori was an avid reader and loved to write. She also enjoyed gardening and cooking for loved ones. Lori was happiest being surrounded by her friends and family at the dinner table for holidays. Lori was a great Mom above all and was very proud of her children.

Lori will forever be missed and lovingly remembered by her two sons Jesse and Chase Halka (John); her mother Mary Byerley; her two sisters Lisa & Michell; her cousin James; uncle Don and two special aunties Kathy and Carol.

She was Predeceased by her father Wayne Byerley and her grandparents Mush, Vi, and grandma Anne whom she missed dearly.

Lori’s family would like to thank the Thunder Bay Regional for all their support during Lori-Anne’s long fight against chronic kidney disease.

Funeral service for Lori-Anne will take place on Wednesday, March 11 in the R. Leino Memorial Chapel of Harbourview Funeral Centre beginning at 11:00 am with visitation at 10:00 am.

The family requests in lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

Please join Lakehead University’s Indigenous Students Association for their 36th Annual Powwow on March 13, 14, 15 at the Lakehead University Hanger. Everyone welcome!

Shared on behalf of Quality and Risk Management

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On Sunday, March 8, 2026, at 2:00 a.m., clocks will move forward one hour to 3:00 a.m. as we transition to Daylight Saving Time.

Accurate timekeeping is essential for maintaining safety and operational efficiency at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. Precise time is critical not only for scheduling procedures and staffing, but also for accurate charting and medication administration.

At 2:00 a.m., all electronic clocks connected to the centralized system (including those in areas such as NICU, ICU, etc.) will automatically advance by one hour. Any final system adjustments are expected to be completed by 5:00 a.m. If any of these clocks have not updated by 8:00 a.m., please contact the Maintenance Department (ext. 6344).

Each department is responsible for updating the time on battery-operated clocks within their areas. Computers will automatically update to the correct time.

Please ensure that your personal watches and devices are updated accordingly and that any clocks within your area are adjusted promptly.