REPORT FROM THE CHIEF OF STAFF
REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF DR. CHRIS BOURDON HSN ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING June 18, 2015
As Chief of Staff and Vice President of Medical and Academic Affairs, it is my pleasure to report on the activities of the medical staff at HSN this past year. 2014 proved to be another successful year for physician recruitment in Greater Sudbury. Each year HSN, the City of Greater Sudbury, NOSM and the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce team up to attract doctors. To date this year, 16 physicians have committed to joining the community, including four family doctors, 11 specialists, and one Emergency Medicine physician. Our new specialists bring skills in the fields of cardiology, obstetrics/gynaecology, oncology, anaesthesia, and pathology. The four family physicians will add to the community’s primary care strength. As we bring children’s care to the spotlight, I am pleased to report we’ve added another pediatrician to our roster at NEO Kids. We improved treatment times in the Emergency Department even though we treated over 4,000 more patients than last year. New surgical procedures were introduced at HSN. In addition to improvements in front-line care, HSN’s physicians and clinical leaders also put a great deal of emphasis on training and skills development this past year. We did this because we believe constant learning is abolutely essential to constant improvement. Health care is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Physicians want and need to be drivers, not merely passengers, of that change. They will achieve this through embracing and sharing new ideas and best practices. A number of our physicians took part in CAHO’s Physician Quality Improvement Initiative, which provides doctors with individualized, valid, and meaningful feedback on how to improve their daily practice of health care. HSN hosted the second annual Northeastern Ontario Hospital Physicians Leadership Conference, and we launched a new Lecture Series to hear from expert speakers, and share information and best practices. In terms of training, our Simulation Lab enjoyed its busiest year to date.Approximately 2,000 clinicians and learners logged over 11,000 hours of training time this past year. The Simulation Lab is expanding in breadth of educational activities, starting in situsimulation programs and collaborating with several academic insitutions and clinical programs. Report of the Chief of Staff
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It was another banner year for the number and quality of medical learners at HSN. In 2014, over 330 medical learners and 1,500 learners of other health care disciplines received enriched learning experiences at HSN. These learners provide care while they learn, and giving them opportunities to spend time here greatly increases our ability to recruit and retain skilled health care workers. As we look to the year ahead, we must acknowledge the challenges we are facing. We have one of Ontario’s busiest Emergency Departments. We continue to deal with Alternate Level of Care patients at HSN. This affects our ability to flow patients through the hospital and the entire health care system. It leads to longer than necessary wait times and, in some cases, surgical cancellations. We must find solutions to these chronic issues. We have a lot more work to do. The process of continuous improvement never ends because our challenges never end. Our patients depend on our willingness and ability to transform health care so that it works for them the way it should. I am quite confident our team of physicians, residents, learners of all varieties, nurses, allied health professionals, and support staff have the expertise and the resolve to meet this task. HSN is a hospital any community in this country can be proud of. And I’m proud to call it the place where I practice medicine.
Report of the Chief of Staff
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