A MESSAGE FROM JANICE KAFFER, PRESIDENT & CEO It has been a year since our last edition of Identity Matters. The world has changed in many ways and from our lens here at HDGH, the differences we are feeling almost daily are directly related to adapting to the new world of COVID-19. Although much of this edition of Identity Matters will reflect our Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) life pre-pandemic, in the early months of 2020 our roles, responsibilities, and worklife changed within our organization as we planned and implemented processes for the world we are experiencing today. We are also planning for the world and the work ahead as we anticipate further waves of COVID-19 across our community, our province, our country and our world. It is indeed a changed existence. COVID-19 brought a lot of tough decisions for us here at HDGH. There were many very challenging conversions had by our teams, our leadership, our patients and their loved-ones. Through all of these conversations maintaining the health and safety of our staff and patients was, and will continue to be, the top priority of our hospital. We were and are focused on maintaining our commitment to be the safest hospital in Ontario and that means for our staff and for our patients. Throughout many of the tough conversations, and the challenging decisions that we had to make, it wasn’t uncommon to hear four words uttered by our HDGH Team- “IT’S WHO WE ARE” I want to talk more about these four simple, yet important, words and their relevance to this edition of Identity Matters. When I say IT’S WHO WE ARE, I am referring to our culture of caring, our culture of safety, our culture of putting our patients and staff at the forefront of our decision making, and our culture of doing the right thing. These words represent, for me,
Janice Kaffer President and CEO
the history and the legacy left to us by our founding sisters; The Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph (The RHSJ). These words do more than just exist at our hospital. They are a grounding force in many of our decisions, they are a touch point in tough times, and they remind us that we stand for something bigger than our own problem of the day. For HDGH, who we are as an organization has always been more than the mission, vision and values plaques hung throughout our buildings. The HDGH story is our shared story – a story of how we have come together as a family to serve our community in new and innovative ways. We have always done that and we always will. It’s who we are. Throughout this edition of Identity Matters, you will be reading about ways in which Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare continues to inspire trust in its programs and services. We can’t talk about all of the amazing work done here in the past year but we have selected some stories and highlights that really speak to who we are as a hospital and as a family. Since the onset of COVID-19 we have learned so much – as an organization, as individuals and as a community. Today, we will continue to respond to this crisis, and continue to proactively initiate the processes, practices and policies to maintain the safety of our people and our patients. We will inspire, create and sustain excellence here at HDGH because… IT’S WHO WE ARE.
...it's who we are.
