Healthcare Change Makers

For this special series HIROC is partnering with the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO) to highlight the work of several amazing primary healthcare teams.

In this episode we speak with Robin Mackie, Executive Director, Delhi Family Health Team; Roxanne Pierssens-Silva, Clinical Services Manager/RPN, Delhi Family Health Team; and Rebecca Spencer-Knight, Nurse Practitioner, Delhi Family Health Team.

Migrant workers constitute a large portion of the workforce in rural Haldimand, Norfolk and Brant Counties. In Haldimand-Norfolk, there are 204 farms that hire and house over 3,300 Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW). The Delhi Family Health Team has traditionally provided primary care services to the workers and were the first people called when a case of COVID was reported. Within hours they transitioned to a fully-functional mobile care team. And they never looked back.

Using their cars, cell phones, and as much equipment and supplies as they could carry, Robin, Roxanne and Rebecca attended to the physical, mental and emotional needs of the workers who were isolated, spoke a different language, and were far from home.

The experience of providing low-tech care in an unpredictable environment reminded the team of why they became nurses in the first place and the importance of looking out for each other.

Quotables

"There were a lot of barriers this year for the agricultural workers being able to access primary care." – RPS

"Within 20 minutes, I was on the phone calling my team and saying, 'Can we start going out to these farms in the next couple of hours?' I had no doubt that the team was going to respond in a positive way." – RM

"My role as the Executive Director was to make sure that this team felt safe and that they were well before anything else so they could provide the great service they did to these workers." – RM

"We were out there knowing that at any point in time if I needed supplies, if I needed support, if I needed just a phone call, I had people available to me at any time of day." – RSK

"It's amazing when you're in something as big as this, how things just seem to fall into place." – RPS

"By offering accurate information, by reassuring them about their care, and being there for them on an emotional basis as well, we were really able to enhance their ability to heal, their ability to cope with the isolation they were going through at that time." – RSK

"The admin side we have to do now is taking away from that emotional, hands-on nursing that most of us got into healthcare for." – RPS

"We put safety first, we put our workers first, we put our patients first and then we moved forward." – RM

Mentioned in this Episode:

AFHTO Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario

Delhi Family Health Team

Migrant workers from Trinidad and Tobago stuck in Haldimand-Norfolk

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For this special series HIROC is partnering with the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO) to highlight the work of several amazing primary healthcare teams.

In this episode we speak with representatives from the Youth Advisory Council, part of the St. Michael's Hospital Academic Family Health Team. Katie Sussman is a Social Worker on the Family Health Team; Muzammil Syed is a member of the Youth Council and a graduate student at the University of Toronto; and Ermias Nagatu is also a member of the Youth Council and a student in the Occupational Health and Safety Program at Ryerson University.

The St. Michael's Academic Family Health Team has a focus on serving vulnerable and unattached patients – and youth are an important part of that population. The creation of the Youth Advisory Council came from a desire to have youth patients inform the Family Health Team about what youth services were needed and where improvements could be made.

It's only been a year – and the council has smoothly transitioned to virtual collaboration. The students are having an impact on decision-making as planned, but the council has also transformed into a place where the youth are playing a true leadership role.

Quotables

"We really consider patients to have the most essential insights when it comes to healthcare development and delivery." – KS

"The initial intention of the youth council was to focus on healthcare services. What's really amazing is that's it's transitioned into a place where youth really have a leadership role." – KS

"We transitioned from meeting at the Bond St. Family Health team location to fully virtual on Zoom and attendance actually increased and engagement increased. From there, we were able to move forward with our next steps." – EN

"When youth told us the service they needed the most but were not currently accessing was a psychologist or counselling, that gave us a target, something we could improve awareness of." – MS

"One of the things that's really important with any advisory committee is recognizing the importance of power-sharing and that the health practitioners aren't actually the experts here. It's the patients who are." – KS

"There's a strong emphasis on diversity within the team – a diversity of people with different backgrounds, with different life experiences, and diversity of thought as well." – MS

"You need to give youth time. Youth provide energy, they provide new ideas, provide lots of momentum and a fresh new perspective. But it often requires time." – MS

"We are so lucky to have youth patients who are so motivated, have such a desire to create, to change, to do and to also teach us." – KS

Mentioned in this Episode:

Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario

St. Michael's Hospital Academic Family Health Team

Ryerson University

University of Toronto

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Today, Ellen Gardner and Philip De Souza, Communications and Marketing at HIROC, speak with Dr. Ronald Cohn, President and CEO of the Hospital for Sick Children.

Early in his medical career, Dr. Ronald Cohn was on a tourist bus in Toronto and as it drove up University Avenue and by SickKids Hospital he told his wife, that's one of the world's leading children's hospitals and I will probably never work there. Proving that life doesn't go where you predict, in 2012 Dr. Cohn accepted a position as Chief of the Division of Clinical and Metabolic Genetics, Co-Director of the Centre for Genetic Medicine, and Senior Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute.

Even as he leads the hospital, staying true to his identity as a physician and a scientist is essential for Dr. Cohn, who still sees patients and is very active in the lab that bears his name. Most recently, his laboratory started to investigate the application of a new genome editing technology, CRISPR/Cas9 that holds the promise of correcting genetic abnormalities that lead to muscular dystrophy.

Today he is guiding the hospital in a new strategic direction called Precision Child Health. The campaign is built around the concept of individualized care tailored to each patient's unique characteristics, from their genetic code to their postal code.

Quotes

"There is an aura in our institution of the people who love working here. That is true for every single person who works here." – RC

"Moving forward, under the concept of "SickKids care anytime, anywhere", we will hopefully have monitoring opportunities of children at home that would help us reduce the time they have to actually stay in the hospital." – RC

"I had a lab meeting and asked the small group assembled – look at this exciting research. I want us to drop everything we're doing right now. Are you willing to go with me on a journey trying to use this technology as a way to identify new therapeutics for muscular dystrophy?" – RC

"(With Precision Child Health) we're trying to look at the very broad data set and then leverage the technology in order to think about prediction as well as prevention." – RC

"It's a difficult journey, a journey that will never end. But I'm glad we made it (diversity, equity and inclusion) a pillar of our strategic plan and we have full support from literally everyone at the executive level and director level to bring some real change."

"There are always opportunities for change. I think leaders need to see them, identify them and you need to help implement them." – RC

"My wife said it best: you put on a suit, it fit you and you just ran with it."

"I can tell you that one of the best decisions of my life was to move here, and it was a difficult one." – RC

Mentioned in this Episode:

The Hospital for Sick Children

Johns Hopkins University

Precision Child Health

Dr. Indra Narang

CRISPR/Cas9

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For this special series we're partnering with the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO) to highlight the work of several amazing primary healthcare teams.

Family health teams provide comprehensive primary care and are based on a collaborative model where physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, dieticians, social workers and many more disciplines work together.

In this episode we speak with Janet Dang, Transformation Lead for Primary Care at the Thames Valley Family Health Team, part of the London Middlesex Primary Care Alliance, and Asher Frydman, a 2nd year medical student at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University. Asher was one of the early volunteers to join Janet's Covid project.

In the early stages of Covid-19, Janet and her team realized the area was experiencing a severe shortage of PPE. With the help of student volunteers and donations from businesses and the community, this grassroots effort grew to become the primary PPE distribution hub for the provincial supply within the region.

Quotables

"I saw that there was a small project that was at its grassroots stage, collecting PPE from the community and I said this is absolutely I want to do." – AF

"We started to call a couple of places and more PPE came in and things were being picked up, and it started to snowball. We thought, oh no, there's only the three of us. We can't really do this for the entire city!" – JA

"The actual cycle of making sure you're tracking all of it, making sure they're getting the exact amounts they need – no more no less – that really took a lot of cycles, discussing with each other and individuals who work higher up like Janet as well as some other doctors, to make sure we were working efficiently as well as ethically." – AF

"The (AFHTO) conference gave us a chance to explain there are hub systems that can really work, and that can actually make a difference in your communities, that can maintain close relationships with physicians and other primary care providers to ensure they can continue their operations during a pandemic such as Covid." – AF

"It was incredible to see how both the community can step up to help healthcare workers and how future healthcare workers are willing to step up as well to make sure we have that continuity of care." – AF

"It just shows that when we communicate and work together in a way to provide support in a time of need, it just was truly grassroots and so organic, it was something very special to be a part of." – JA

Mentioned in this Episode:

AFHTO Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario

Thames Valley Family Health Team

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry

SoleScience

Fanshawe College

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Today, Ellen Gardner and Philip De Souza, Communications and Marketing at HIROC, speak with Emily Gruenwoldt Carkner, President and CEO of Children's Healthcare Canada.

Like many professional women, the usual pressures of leading two national associations, two young children at home, and staying healthy have been compounded for Emily Gruenwoldt during Covid-19. Fortunately Emily and her husband were able to turn to a big community of support, but she's not lost sight of the effect of those pressures on her team and so makes a point of doing individual check-ins.

The entire landscape around children's healthcare has shifted, creating accessibility and equity issues for many, but Emily also sees the silver linings – notably, the rise in virtual care and the prospect of many more people being able to attend CHC's (now) virtual conference in November. This event and the many other ways they're finding to meaningfully interact with members Emily says have been game-changers for the organization.

Key Takeaways:

1:08 Why Emily chose to work in children's health

3:16 How Children's Healthcare Canada has continued to provide virtual offerings to members

4:20 The transition of the annual meeting and the opportunities that presents

7:12 Great enthusiasm from CHC members around the rapid implementation of virtual care

8:19 The pandemic has given us permission to innovate

9:35 Why moving the dial on children's health is going to take effort from health and other sectors

10:17 Why the UNICEF Canada 14 report card is a call to action

11:05 The collaboration of several organizations to create a new framework for the health and well-being status of children in Canada

13:26 A role for everyone to participate in the project, We Can for Kids

16:05 A unique opportunity to address mental health issue early and change the course for youth

17:03 How Emily tunes into issues in hospitals and healthcare organizations around the country

18:53 Coping with the biggest challenge of her professional career

19:27 How the CHC team used best practices to stay in touch during Covid

21:34 A memorable moment during the pandemic

22:44 The crisis has given the team a new sense of purpose

25:08 What has changed in Emily's leadership style

26:49 The value of Emerging Health Leaders in giving leaders a safe space to ask questions and build relationships with peers and senior leaders

27:48 The value of having a "kitchen cabinet"

Mentioned in this Episode:

Children's Healthcare Canada

Children's Healthcare Canada Conference '20

Emerging Health Leaders

UNICEF Canada Report Card 14: Child Well Being in a Sustainable World

WeCANforKids

The Social CEO: How Social Media can make you a stronger leader

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Email us at [email protected].

Today, Ellen Gardner and Philip De Souza, Communications and Marketing at HIROC, speak with Bernard Leduc, President and CEO of Hôpital Montfort.

From the day he joined the hospital in 1999 as a family physician to serving as Chief of Staff and then being appointed President and CEO in 2010, Bernard Leduc has never lost sight of the mission that drives the hospital: to serve the francophone population in the Ottawa area and deliver a high level of patient-centred care. "In the words of my predecessor, 'We cannot fail'." With small step improvements and empowering staff to make changes, for this leader failure has never been an option.

At the time of the recording (August), Montfort was not experiencing a high volume of COVID cases, but by mid-September, were coping with a few more. Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Leduc and his team have stayed visible and made sure staff feel safe and protected, continuously asking, "Do you have what you need?". The philosophy that has kept the hospital on an even keel during COVID is the one that serves him well as CEO every day – it's rooted in three words: transparency, communication and recognition.

Key Takeaways:

[1:14] What keeps Bernard engaged in the mission of the hospital

[3:17] How the hospital keeps employees and the community connected with the hospital's origin story

[6:24] How uncertainty about the hospital in 1999 shifted to a sense of purpose and solidarity

[7:37] Still gaps in the provision of services to francophones

[10:39] The three words he lives by during a crisis

[12:27] The importance of validating the fears and anxieties of staff

[15:26] His recognition during the crisis of the need to rely less on consensus and be more decisive

[18:33] Why the relationship with the Board needs to be a partnership based on trust, transparency and communication

[19:35] Hôpital Montfort's vision is to deliver exceptional care "avec vous et pour vous"

[21:27] Initiatives the hospital has taken to improve quality with a focus on Lean Management

[24:21] Following the advice of an old African proverb, "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together"

[27:09] Steps being taken towards succession planning

[29:13] What Bernard thinks needs to happen to "turn the corner" on patient safety

Mentioned in this Episode:

Hôpital Montfort

The Ontario Health Services Restructuring Commission

Lean Tools

Studer Group

Marie Josee Martel

France Morin – Clinical Manager, Family Birthing Centre (Montfort)

Talking to Strangers – Malcolm Gladwell

Indian Horse – Richard Wagamese

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Welcome to From the Frontlines, a special Healthcare Change Makers mini-series. Healthcare providers and support staff have been on the frontlines, fighting for Canadians since the start of this pandemic. In this series we're handing the microphone over to some of those amazing individuals.

Today, HIROC's Michelle Holden and Philip De Souza sit down with three members of the Corporate Communications Team at The Ottawa Hospital. We hear from Bernie Etzinger (Chief Communications and Outreach Officer), Brooke Peloquin (Internal Communications Coordinator) and Michaela Schreiter (Media Relations Officer).

When COVID-19 arrived on the radar earlier in the year, the team was called into action to support hospital staff, partners and the community at large. Hear from Bernie, Brooke and Michaela about what it was like to stand up one of the first assessment centres, and the tactics they've been using to keep staff and community partners connected in times of great change.

And, if you get a chance, check out On Call: The Ottawa Hospital Podcast hosted by Michaela Schreiter.

Key Takeaways:

[2:41] Internal communications tactics the team employed during the pandemic

[8:44] Stronger together – working with public health and other hospitals in the region

[10:25] How Corporate Communications worked with teams to stand up the assessment centre

[13:00] Solidifying a relationship with the media during the pandemic

[16:24] Connecting the dots with stakeholders – the team's special sauce

[18:04] Transitioning to a new CEO in the midst of the pandemic

Mentioned in this Episode:

• The Ottawa Hospital

• Cameron Love

• Jack Kitts

• Ottawa Public Health

• On Call: The Ottawa Hospital Podcast

Access more interviews with healthcare leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Email us at [email protected].

Welcome to From the Frontlines, a special Healthcare Change Makers mini-series. Healthcare providers and support staff have been on the frontlines, fighting for Canadians since the start of this pandemic. In this series we're handing the microphone over to some of those amazing individuals.

Today, HIROC's Michelle Holden and Philip De Souza sit down with Claire Dion Fletcher, Indigenous Registered Midwife and Co-Chair of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives (NACM). Claire gives us an inside look at what midwifery and patient care look like in today's new normal.

She speaks about the important role that Indigenous midwifery plays in our healthcare system and what Canadians can do to better understand this relationship.

For those looking to learn more about NACM and the role of midwives in our healthcare system, Claire leaves us with some salient takeaways.

Key Takeaways:

[1:05] Claire tells us about herself and her work

[2:18] The centering of clients and families in the care experience is crucial to providing good healthcare

[3:12] How midwives play a role in the revitalization of Indigenous knowledge and culture in healthcare

[4:16] What has changed and what has stayed the same in midwifery care since the start of the pandemic

[7:02] Talking to clients about the unknowns around being pregnant and delivering during the pandemic

[8:44] The day-to-day of a midwife

[10:03] NACM's work around inequities in the healthcare system and the demand for better access to care provided by Indigenous midwives

[12:23] Claire's work with the Midwifery Education Program at Ryerson

[13:06] One thing Canadians can do to better educate themselves and see the true value of midwives in society

[15:00] How the attention being drawn to racism today is interlinked with midwifery

Mentioned in this Episode:

Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto

National Aboriginal Council of Midwives (NACM)

Carol Couchie

Midwifery Education Program (Ryerson University)

Access more interviews with healthcare leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Email us at [email protected].

Welcome to From the Frontlines, a special Healthcare Change Makers mini-series. Healthcare providers and support staff have been on the frontlines, fighting for Canadians since the start of this pandemic. In this series we're handing the microphone over to some of those amazing individuals.

Today, Marc Aiello, Communications and Marketing Coordinator at HIROC, and Philip De Souza, Director of Communications and Marketing, speak with Lori Zillman, a Registered Nurse from Alberta Health Services working as a Communicable Disease Coordinator in the South Zone of Alberta.

As Lori mentions in this episode, her team is "small but mighty." Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lori and her team at South Zone's Communicable Disease program have been working hard to respond to all the challenges brought their way.

Key Takeaways:

[1:22] Lori speaks about growing up in Alberta, her family, her current role and the type of work her team does

[3:25] Coordinating with Alberta's provincial response team and other zones during the pandemic

[4:23] Keeping morale up during these difficult times

[5:40] How proud Lori is of her team's passion for tackling challenges

[6:47] Strong leadership and resources are necessary for operating a team during a pandemic

[8:54] How Lori's team effectively responded to an outbreak in South Zone

[10:57] Lori's best piece of advice for similar healthcare teams across the country

[12:08] Working together and collaborating to support the communications process

Mentioned in this Episode:

Alberta Health Services

Access more interviews with healthcare leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Email us at [email protected].

Welcome to From the Frontlines, a special Healthcare Change Makers mini-series. Healthcare providers and support staff have been on the frontlines, fighting for Canadians since the start of this pandemic. In this series we're handing the microphone over to some of those amazing individuals.

Today, Philip De Souza, HIROC's Director of Communications and Marketing, chats with Leslie Motz, Vice President Clinical Services and Chief Nursing Executive at Lakeridge Health. In this dual role Leslie's work impacts a number of areas at the organization, including patient care. She also works to ensure teams are well positioned for success, instilling the importance of self-awareness and self-care in her staff.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, change has been coming fast and furious. Leslie has been inspired by her team who have managed this change in a very calm, thoughtful way – always putting patients and their colleagues first.

Key Takeaways:

[1:23] Learning about Lakeridge Health

[1:50] Leslie's work in her dual role as VP Clinical Services and Chief Nursing Executive

[2:47] Strategies at Lakeridge Health that contribute to a culture of safety

[3:55] Throughout the pandemic, Lakeridge's foundations of safety have been tested and true

[5:03] Leslie and her team have adapted to the management of clinical nursing and long-term care – a true moment of resiliency

[7:00] What Leslie has learned about partnering with other organizations

[8:28] Leslie encourages her team to be self-aware and provide self-care when needed

[9:30] Clapping Lakeridge's first COVID-19 patient out of the organization

[10:04] Self-reflection on leadership and family during the Canadian Armed Forces ceremony at Orchard Villa

Mentioned in this Episode:

Lakeridge Health

Orchard Villa

Canadian Armed Forces

Durham Region

Access more interviews with healthcare leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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Email us at [email protected].