Good Monday morning,
It's been great to see fellow Torontonians coming together around the Raptors! Before we continue, let's thank our municipal partners who are working hard to keep our city safe and clean throughout the finals and beyond. Last night they fought on valiantly! Let's go Raptors!
1. Highlights on UHN's Essentials
UHN's Essentials are essential to the work we do as a leading academic health sciences centre – hence the name!
Read here to learn more. Below, you'll find highlights on UHN's Essentials from last week.
Compassionate Care and Caring One of my most important meetings thus far at UHN – what "privilege to serve" really means: Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of meeting with Jay who is a young man receiving care at Toronto Rehab's Acquired Brain Injury service. Of all the privileges that come with working at UHN, none is greater than meeting and supporting patients and clients who've faced so much and work so hard to recover. He told me about his goal to walk and further improve his speech. Jay described his care team as "incredible." You've heard me say "privileged to serve" many times – let us internalize this as part of our TeamUHN mentality, because we are truly privileged to make a difference in the lives of others. It was moving and humbling to meet Jay and I left feeling even more proud to be – like each of you – a member of TeamUHN.
Compassionate Care and Caring UHN's Integrated Care program launches today! First patients enrolling in the thoracic surgery pathway: This new model means we will be wrapping care around patients, families and providers across their entire pre-acute, acute and post-acute journey. We have the core program elements in place:
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Introducing UHN's first Integrated Care Leads: Emily Hannon and Kim Pavli Clark. Moving forward, they will each serve as the primary point of contact for patients enrolled in this pathway and help coordinate seamless transitions between UHN and the community.
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24/7 phone line set up: One dedicated number that patients can call with all questions.
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One consistent care team for patients in this pathway comprised of UHN and home care colleagues: Home care partners will be providing frontline resources to support home care across Toronto.
Many thanks to Tom Waddell (Division Head, Thoracic Surgery) and Jocelyne De Romana (Nurse Manager, Thoracic Surgery and Respirology Inpatient Unit 10ES) for their leadership and support.
Environments Trade union strikes impacting our ability to deliver on infrastructure projects: The Sheet Metal Trade Union and Plumbers and Steamfitters Union went on strike recently, which impacts the majority of our projects at UHN. Our colleagues in FM-PRO (Facilities Management – Planning, Redevelopment & Operations) are keeping track of the negotiations and contingency planning.
People and Culture Reflecting on the importance of work-life balance at Scott McIntaggart's retirement tea: While it was bittersweet to bid Scott farewell, it was a pleasure hearing from colleagues who've known him for ages and about his passion for music, theatre and gardening as well as his amazing clinical and leadership skills. Reminder for all of us to pursue creativity and personal development, not just professional development. Thank you Scott for your remarkable service and for setting the example. Wishing you all the best in the next phase.
2. What we discussed at our Executive Leadership Forum
Here is what we discussed at last week's Executive Leadership Forum meeting (
see who attends these meetings on this Intranet page):
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Health Information System financing: We received an update on options for financing our clinical transformation at UHN. The next step is to bring this to our Finance & Audit committee for discussion and then put together a recommendation for the Board. This is an important decision and much work is still underway.
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Business analytics journey: We have a decentralized analytics structure at UHN – which means it's challenging to share data and knowledge between programs. Michael Caesar (Executive Director, Data & Implementation Science) presented on the different approaches we could take to empower TeamUHN.
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Update from UHN's Indigenous Council: We discussed the needs of the local Indigenous populations we serve at UHN and our commitment to ensuring the needs of patients come first. Thank you to Lisa Richardson, Bernice Downey and Krista Maracle raising this important work at UHN in support of diversity and inclusion.
3. BE AMAZED! UHN Transplant Evening
Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending the Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation's BE AMAZED event
[Editor's Note: Link is no longer available]. UHN's transplant program has achieved many world firsts including the first successful single and double lung transplants. These advancements are made possible thanks to the incomparable generosity of organ donors, the hard work of TeamUHN (including our talented Foundation colleagues) and our remarkable philanthropic community. A $26 M gift to Grand Cru for support of the Transplant program was announced at the event on Wednesday. We express our deepest thanks.
Have a good week,
Kevin
