People Caring for People
- January 2004
- Français
The Niagara Health System is a family, made up of dedicated clinical and support staff, general practitioners and specialist physicians, amazing volunteers, committed auxiliary members and community-minded foundations. These groups together form the cornerstone of hospital care in Niagara. The following excerpts from our Community Report offer a glimpse into the NHS.
Paul D. Leon
>> Chair, Board of Trustees
The people of the Niagara Health System are dedicated to providing quality, timely and compassionate health care service to the near half million residents who call the Niagara Region their home.
The Niagara Health System came together as Ontario's largest amalgamated hospital organization three years ago and has been built on the strengths and legacies of its founding hospitals, namely Douglas Memorial Hospital in Fort Erie, Greater Niagara General in Niagara Falls, Niagara on-the lake Hospital, Niagara Rehabilitation in St. Catharines, Port Colborne General, Shaver Hospital in St. Catharines, St. Catharines General and Welland Hospital. Our 3,800 healthcare workers, 520 privileged medical staff members, 1,000-plus volunteers, our auxiliaries, our foundations and their donors are bound by their quest to fulfill our organization's new vision, "Together in Excellence—Leaders in Healthcare."
People are the heart of our health system. Our patients, volunteers, donors, physicians and employees have been part of building the foundation of our vibrant new healthcare system. People who are dedicated to providing quality care in their local communities while making the most efficient, effective use of the resources available to our region as a whole. Above all, people who recognize and are committed to ensuring that at all times patients receive compassionate, professional and respectful healthcare services.
Debbie Sevenpifer
>> President & CEO
Time and time again over the first three years of the Niagara Health System's development, we have seen what could be accomplished when our people pulled together.
Together, we have undertaken the enormous task of bringing together eight hospitals into a seamless healthcare system. We are striving to ensure the best practices and highest standards of care are available across all our hospital sites.
We have invested in and continue to invest in state-of-the-art facilities, including a $13 million emergency department and ambulatory care centre at our Welland Hospital Site, and an additional Magnetic Resonance Imaging System and a $20 million redevelopment of the emergency department and ambulatory care centre, both at our Greater Niagara General Site. We are pursuing the development of a cardiac catheterization laboratory in Niagara at our St. Catharines General Site so that the thousands of Niagara residents who travel each year to Hamilton, London and Toronto for this procedure can be served in their home region.
In partnership with Cancer Care Ontario we are also building the first-ever comprehensive cancer treatment centre to serve the people of Niagara right here at home. We are working diligently with our partner hospital, Hotel Dieu Health Sciences Hospital to implement the Health Services Restructuring Commission directions for St. Catharines and Thorold and to propose building a single new healthcare campus to replace the aging Hotel Dieu and St. Catharines General Site buildings. We've established new roles for nurse practitioners in the areas of mental health, primary care and paediatrics. Our list goes on, as does our quest to respond to the ever-evolving healthcare needs of the people we serve.
To support our new vision, "Together in Excellence—Leaders in Healthcare", we've developed and committed to five critical success factors upon which all of our priorities and key actions are built. Our success factors are: focus on those we serve; bring out the best in each other; build strong and successful relationships; create a better way; and use our resources wisely. Along with our success factors, their associated action steps and accountabilities, we've also committed to core values of compassion, respect and professionalism. To live our values we've embarked upon a comprehensive system-wide service excellence initiative to ensure compassionate, customer focused service can be first and foremost in the interactions and intentions of all of the people who encompass the Niagara Health System.
While the task before us may appear daunting, we have the people, the will and the heart to care for others. The people of Niagara deserve the best in hospital care and our job is to continue to put the systems and supports in place so that our doctors, nurses and healthcare workers can do what they do best: provide needed services in a compassionate, caring and professional way.
Dr. William Shragge
>> Chief of Staff
Providing quality medical care is our ultimate goal and obligation as the Niagara Health System. This past year, at least 37,636 Niagara residents were hospitalized as inpatients across our eight sites. More than 170,000 people received care and treatment in our five 24/7 emergency departments. As well, 3,189 babies were born at our Greater Niagara, St. Catharines General and Welland Hospital sites.
As we move forward into the future, we want to provide the most appropriate medical services we can to be able to keep as many patients as possible here in Niagara for treatment. The opportunity to create the Niagara Regional Cancer Centre means that the 1,000 Niagara cancer patients who travel daily outside of the region for radiation therapy each year will by 2008 receive treatment closer to home. The same can be said for the near 2,000 Niagara patients who annually have to go to Hamilton, Toronto, London and beyond for cardiac catheterization.
Along with providing appropriate hospital based services, we are also committed to having patients who are hospitalized in tertiary care hospitals returned back home to Niagara as soon as their condition permits. To do this we are strengthening our ties with medical speciality centres throughout Ontario and assessing the medical supports that we need to have here in Niagara.
Along with facilities, medical technology and leading-edge equipment, we need to have the right mix of doctors and healthcare professionals to provide our hospital services. I am proud to say that efforts to recruit and retain nurses and other healthcare professionals are showing positive results, and that to date, our recruitment efforts have drawn more than 40 new physician specialists to practice here in Niagara.
Our objective is to continuously strive to provide effective, efficient human care in a timely and safe environment. The efforts of our health professional team are steadily moving us in that direction.
Jeff Morgan
>> Board of Trustees Liaison, Foundations
Strong hospitals make for healthy communities —and access to good healthcare is a key factor for many families and businesses that choose to make Niagara "home."
The eight founding hospitals of the Niagara Health System have thrived as community cornerstones across many generations, and been supported with hundreds of gifts enabling building expansions, renovations and purchases of critically necessary medical equipment and furnishings.
As our region's population continues to grow and thrive, the needs of our healthcare system continue to mount. Medical technology and practices are advancing at unprecedented rates, and the same generosity and philanthropy that has served our hospitals for generations is needed more than ever before.
A gift to your local hospital stays at your local hospital. The Niagara Health System is committed to community hospital care and to ensuring the same excellent standard of quality, compassionate patient care across all eight of its hospital sites.
Anne Ashdown
>> Board of Trustees Liaison, Auxiliaries
If you ask any of the 853 auxilians serving at our Niagara Health System sites what drives them to volunteer hundreds of hours every year to selling lottery tickets, assisting patients or running their hospital tuck shop and gift shops, they all have the same answer—it's because they care.
Canada's proud hospital auxiliary tradition owes its roots to one of our Niagara Health System family members—the St. Catharines General Site, where in 1865, the first auxiliary was formed. Today, auxiliary groups serve more than 200 Ontario hospitals, enhancing patient care, raising funds, providing leadership and educational opportunities to their members, promoting volunteerism among youth, responding to change and progress in the volunteer healthcare field and helping their affiliated hospitals to meet their goals.
This past year, Niagara Health System's auxiliary members gave more than 98,872 volunteer hours, raised over $643,000 to support their local hospital sites, and conducted the first regional fundraising initiative in support of the Niagara Regional Cancer Centre. Congratulations, and thank you all.