Wednesday, October 27, 2021
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. (ET)

Join this webinar, hosted by Heathcare Excellence Canada, in honour of Canadian Patient Safety Week. The goals of this virtual discussion are to build an understanding of the importance of Essential Care Partners and to consider the lessons learned through this pandemic where the negative impacts as a result of their absence has been clear. We will discuss how care partners help prevent harm, why it’s a safety concern to prohibit them from being physically present as partners in care, and how we can safely reintegrate them – now and into the future. Details of the webinar will be announced on patientsafetyweek.ca and emailed to CPSW registrants.

Join the conversation

Meet the panel of speakers who will be joining us on Wednesday, October 27 at 12:00 p.m. (ET) for our Canadian Patient Safety Week webinar:

• Dr. Amit Arya – Palliative Care Lead at Kensington Health; Lecturer, Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Toronto; Assistant Clinical Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
• Jennifer Baumbusch – Caregiver for her daughter who is medically complex, Associate Professor at the UBC School of Nursing
• Jannice Kaffer – President and CEO, Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare
• Linda Moss – Patient Advocate, Ontario
• Carol Fancott – Director, Patient Engagement and Partnerships, Healthcare Excellence Canada
• Maggie Keresteci – Essential Care Partner, Executive Director, Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research

*The term “patient” is used inclusively to refer to people who receive care or services in a variety of settings, including acute care, outpatient and community services, long-term care, home care, etc.

Attend this free virtual Symposium with interactive sessions based on Patient Experiences – Lessons for Learning!

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Session 1: Blood Administration
Michelle Ng RN, BScN, Transfusion Safety Officer, North York General

Session 2: Transfusion Reactions
Heather Luyckx MLT, BMSc. (hons), Transfusion Safety Officer, Trillium Health Partners

Session 3: (concurrent sessions, attend 1, all will be recorded)
3a: Patient Blood Management
Amanda Sellers RN, BN, MN, Patient Blood Management Coordinator, Mount Sinai Hospital / ONTraC

3b: Pediatric / Neonatal Transfusion
Paula Carroll MLT, BSc, MHS, Transfusion Safety Officer, The Hospital for Sick Children

3c: Platelet Transfusion
T. (Dorien) Ruijs MD, FRCP, Physician Clinical Project Coordinator ORBCoN, and Donna Berta RN BScN, Nursing Clinical Project Coordinator ORBCoN

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To register, click HERE

Please note, space is limited for this event.

You will receive a link to attend this Zoom event on your computer via email on November 22, 2021. (post Symposium Certificate of Attendance follows the evaluation survey)

You are invited to a live webinar hosted by SeamlessMD in partnership with Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC), on Tuesday September 21st @ 1:00 pm, where we will be sharing the steps taken to reduce surgical backlog and Emergency Department (ED) visits.

During the 50-min session, you will learn:

• How TBRHSC and our Regional Partners increased same-day (vs. inpatient) surgeries, while dramatically ED visits & Readmissions.
• How TBRHSC and our Regional Partners implemented their successful Surgical Remote Monitoring program.
• How TBRHSC’s care team spends less than 1 hour per week monitoring patients with the help of “smart alerts & notifications” and more.
• The TBRHSC team including Caroline Fanti, Director of Surgical Services, and Skylar Christian, NP for Remote Patient Monitoring, will also be available for an extensive Q&A, so please bring your questions!

To register for this free and informative webinar, visit https://seamless.md/tbrhsc-webinar-sign-up

Today is World Patient Safety Day and our Hospital is joining the pledge to take action to reduce patient harm in a health care setting.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared September 17th as World Patient Safety Day. Globally, 134 million adverse events contribute to 2.6 million deaths each year due to unsafe care. At 28,000 deaths per year in Canada, patient harm ranks third in mortality after cancer and heart disease.

World Patient Safety Day helps to raise awareness of the need to formulate policies, create a safe work culture, and provide care where the safety of patients is a priority. Each year, a new theme is selected to shed light on a priority patient safety area where action is needed to reduce avoidable harm in health care and achieve universal health coverage.

Considering the significant burden of harm women and newborns are exposed to due to unsafe care, this year’s World Patient Safety Day is dedicated to the need to prioritize and address safety in maternal and newborn care, particularly around the time of childbirth, when most harm occurs.

Like all departments at our Hospital, the Labour and Delivery team is committed to patient safety. Dr. Laura Power, Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at our Hospital, explained how Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is a hub for maternity and infant care for Northwestern Ontario. “We are committed to safe perinatal care,” stated Dr. Power. “Parents have the choice of care providers, including Obstetricians, Family Physicians, Midwives, and Indigenous midwives. Pediatricians also provide more intensive services for newborns in need of extra care. We work as a team to make our Hospital a safe place for childbirth. In addition, our Hospital provides support to several rural communities that provide maternity and perinatal care so that parents can remain as close to home as possible.”

Thank you to Dr. Power, Dr. Jumah (Obstetrician Gynecologist), Linda, Trisha and Alli (Registered Nurses), in addition to all the Women and Children’s services for making patient safety a priority.

Thank you to all Hospital staff who have submitted their completed COVID-19 declaration forms. Those that qualify for at-home rapid antigen testing are required to pick up their antigen testing kit this week (September 13-17) from Occupational Health & Safety between 0730 – 1730hrs, Monday to Friday.

Please note that staff who do not pick up and complete their at-home test this Wednesday or Sunday will be considered non-compliant. Currently, the requirement to complete at-home rapid antigen testing once a week (Wednesday or Sunday) is applicable while our Hospital’s internal pandemic response is Green or Yellow. The frequency of required testing will change if the Hospital’s internal pandemic response changes to Orange or Red. More information will be shared soon.

The Informatics team has added 7 additional workshops. See the attached schedule for more details.

Neonatal Nurses Week (September 13-19) provides an opportunity to celebrate the hard work and dedication of neonatal nurses. The contributions of these health care heroes to the tiniest patients make a difference that lasts a lifetime for neonates and their families.

Following the challenges for health care workers in 2020 related to the global pandemic, the World Health Organization extended the ‘Year of the Nurse’ celebration for a second year. Nurses all over the world continue working tirelessly to save the most fragile neonatal lives, work closely with patient families, and advocate for the neonatal nursing profession.

Pictured above (L-R) are NICU nurses in our Hospital: Shaelyn Leblanc, Ursula Cote, Trisha Smith, Michelle Lauzon, and Brianna Shields-Anderson.

Please join us in thanking our NICU nurses for their tremendous contributions to patient and family centred care.