Good Monday morning,
1. Highlights on UHN's Essentials
UHN's Essentials are the central responsibilities we have as a leading academic health sciences centre.
Read here to learn more. Below, you'll find highlights on UHN's Essentials from last week.
Operational Excellence How the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital and The Ottawa Hospital improved surgical flow – and what UHN is doing: Our colleagues in surgery – quickly followed by imaging, labs, pharmacy and many others – will begin working with the Institute of Health Optimization (IHO), a group that developed a scientific approach to managing variability in healthcare. IHO's methodology was proven successful at many U.S. institutions and The Ottawa Hospital, who experienced similar stressors to those at UHN, including less operating room time than clinical demands required, bed shortages and challenging wait times. After applying the IHO methodology, The Ottawa Hospital (and a number of U.S. academic health centres) observed highly impressive results including reduced surgery cancellations due to bed shortages (600+ per year down to zero) and improved access for patients needing emergency surgery within 24 hours (60% to 90%). UHN will be the next Canadian hospital to apply the IHO methodology thanks to funding from the Sprott Surgery gift. Our team in the surgery program met for the kickoff meeting last week and are motivated by the opportunity ahead – though we know this will take a great deal of work. Thank you to our Surgical Leadership Team for championing this important endeavor in service of patients, families, scholarship and TeamUHN.
Quality and Safety All in-patient units have completed Code Orange workshops: Many thanks to the 230+ members of TeamUHN who participated and identified ways of improving UHN's emergency preparedness! Important progress as we prepare for our UHN-wide Code Orange drill in June. The next phase is now underway and includes workshops for Toronto Rehab, Princess Margaret and non-clinical departments including Housekeeping, Public Affairs and Security. Read more about this work in the
UHN News story here.
People and Culture New Code of Conduct for Ontario nurses: The College of Nurses of Ontario published a new code of conduct for nurses that took effect last week (
you can familiarize yourselves here). While the code was created to guide nurses in their practice, it is great to see how well it aligns with our values here at UHN – respecting the dignity of patients, working respectfully with colleagues, and acting with integrity.
2. You're invited to present A Healthier World
Many senior leaders at UHN have presented our vision of A Healthier World and the Strategic Plan to their teams – or will be doing so shortly – but I'll mention that presentation resources are available to everyone. Ask your leader about getting a copy of the deck which may be customized to align with your program or group's strategies. For questions about how other groups have presented the plan, feel free to consult one of our helpful colleagues in Corporate Planning (see the team and their contact information here).
3. The Honourable Michael Wilson
Last evening we learned of the sad passing of the Honourable Michael Wilson, who served as Minister of Finance and Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. His commitment to mental health and addictions was legendary, born of his son's experience. Less well known was his important role on the Governing Council if the Canadian Institute for Health Research, where his advocacy and skills helped protect and grown funding for the Tri-Councils and CFI. Our condolences to his family.
Have a good week,
Kevin
