​​In the spirit of Looking Ahead, I want to mention that the Local Impact Award's nomination process will run until May 29. Indeed, during Nursing Week, what better way to honour one of you colleagues who has made a significant contribution to the care of our patients, than to nominate them to the Local Impact Award. You need to send 500 words, via e-mail to Dr. Michael Baker (Michael.Baker@uhn.ca) telling the committee about the impact your colleague has made here in the UHN community. This is the first year for the Local Impact Award and is open to anyone working at UHN. The award will go to work that has been done in the current year by an individual or a team of people who work at UHN and have improved the care or work environment at UHN in a way that has had tremendous impact on the UHN community and the patients we serve in our LHIN and the GTA.

Last week's Toronto Western Hospital Collaborative Interprofessional Surgical Summit took place at Exhibition Place and was organized by staff on the surgical units at Toronto Western. You can read the story about the symposium here and I want to commend the organizing group on their focus of patient safety. So, if you'd like to share a few things that you learned at the summit, please feel free to send them along. I am very interested hear your thoughts and ideas about how we can enhance patient safety and the patient experience at UHN. Please remember that patient, employee, and workplace safety is a shared responsibility for all of us. Speak up on safety.

I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone involved in our response and care for the patient who came to Toronto Western from Toronto Pearson International Airport because of symptoms and travel history that suggested a possible case of Ebola. From arrival in Emergency, through the testing procedures, to the response of everyone involved was thoroughly professional and demonstrated how well all of the work has prepared us to respond. I know that it was a very long night and took tremendous teamwork for us to provide state-of-the –art, world class care for this patient. The great news is this individual was negative for Ebola and that the care required was delivered with sensitivity and empathy. This teamwork is what makes UHN so great.

Finally, I want you to know that we have hundreds of savings suggestions that have been sent in. In the coming weeks, our chief financial officer Justine Jackson and I will send out a summary of the types of suggestions we've received including some common themes that we can work on together. It is so encouraging to see that so many people are acutely aware of opportunities to conserve resources in their working environment and want to do something about it, whether it be unnecessary printing of e-mails, computers and lights left on long after the work day is over or supplies thrown out because they were taken in to a patient room and never used. So, thank you again and a summary will soon come to everyone at UHN.

​​Peter​

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