Dear Colleagues,
A couple of days ago we received the news that UHN had been Accredited with Exemplary Standing, the highest award that an organization can received from Accreditation Canada in its new system. This decision reflects the extraordinary work that each of you do every day at UHN in caring for our patients and their families. I am honoured to lead UHN and thank all of you for your dedication to making this the best hospital in Canada.
Accreditation Canada explains its decisions as follows:
The accreditation decision an organization receives is based on its performance in three main areas and reflects the organization's degree of success in each area:
- meeting the requirements embedded in the standards;
- achieving applicable Required Organizational Practices;*
- soliciting feedback from their staff on worklife quality and patient safety culture.
*Required Organizational Practices (ROPs) are evidence-based practices that mitigate risk and contribute to improving the safety of health services.
Accredited with Exemplary Standing reflects an organization that has attained a very high level of performance and quality in achieving the majority of required elements in the accreditation program.Accredited with Exemplary Standing means the organization has achieved the highest level of accreditation.
If you'd like to read the complete final report for UHN's accreditation, you may find it at http://intranet.uhn.ca/home/accreditation/ which also records the hard work that it took to get to our accreditation last fall.
I'll close by thanking Emily Musing, Anita Tepfers, Therese Hawn and Natalie Quan for all of their work in preparing the organization for accreditation. I know that they're probably already thinking about what happens next, but I think we should all pause and celebrate this accomplishment.
