Hello, Boozhoo, Bonjour.

We are starting to see the actual signs of spring upon us, with longer days and a sense of renewal and vitality on the horizon. Spring is a season of new beginnings, synonymous with renewed energy and hope. As we embrace the changes that spring brings, let us also embrace the opportunities. There are a lot of new things happening within our Hospital and Health Research Institute and I hope you feel positive about the future ahead. 

Preparations for the cardiovascular surgery project are progressing as we ready our site for the construction activities set to commence on March 31, 2025. Given the scale of this project, logistical challenges are expected, and some disruptions will inevitably occur. As we adjust our parking arrangements and clinical operations to accommodate these activities, we kindly request your patience and understanding. We are continuously monitoring our parking situation and traffic flow on our campus to ensure safety and accessibility for everyone.   We do know all of this change creates inconvenience and challenges for our patients, families, visitors, as well as our staff. Thank you for your patience as we work through and adapt. I would like to extend gratitude to the project team for their ongoing efforts to support us all.

As we work to bring improvements to ways in which we access health information, PocketHealth is now live and is providing secure access to medical imaging for both patients and providers. We are pleased to be offering this innovative digital platform where patients can retrieve their own diagnostic imaging, be informed of medical decisions and have greater involvement in their own healthcare journey. Providers benefit from streamlined access to critical imaging data, enhancing the efficiency of diagnostics and treatment plans.

By bridging the gap between patients and medical professionals, PocketHealth enables us to be more responsive, transparent, and efficient, ultimately improving the overall quality of patient care.

As well, the technology will provide our staff who typically have to manage these requests, more opportunity to support direct patient care needs.

Over the last several months, I have taken part in many of the Quality Huddles happening around our Hospital. These forums provide clinical and non-clinical areas opportunity to share team successes, opportunities for improvement and discuss safety and quality issues. To date, it has been a great experience to be a part of and I am amazed at the number of staff engaged in the topics. It is evident that this corporate initiative is providing a forum where all staff can feel they are contributing to our safety culture and driving quality work within all areas. Thank you for all your work and improvements.    

There is always something to celebrate and at the Research and Innovation Week at Lakehead University, Dr. Christopher Mushquash, Vice President Research at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and Chief Scientist at Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute received the Distinguished Researcher Award. This award is the highest honour conferred by Lakehead University for research and scholarly activity and is only given to a scholar once in their career for research and scholarly activity sustained at a high level over a period of at least one decade. Congratulations to Chris and all of our distinguished researchers and those supporting this work.

As always, I welcome your feedback — about this blog or anything else on your mind. Feel free to reach out to me at rhonda.ellacott@tbh.net. I appreciate hearing from you.