Grand River Hospital

INNOVATORSON

From the tech and research hub of Ontario, Ron Gagnon, President and CEO of Grand River Hospital, highlights the need for improved healthcare innovation and infrastructure

Writer: Jack Salter | Project Manager: Felix Revell

Canada is a world leader in science, technology and innovation, and is recognized as one of the most innovative and competitive economies in the world.

The country’s largest and most populous province, Ontario, houses the second-largest IT cluster in North America, where industry giants such as Amazon, Google, and IBM invest in major R&D operations.

Ontario is also home to a concentration of world-renowned research institutes, that work collaboratively with businesses to create innovative, game-changing solutions.

ON THE RIVER

It was the opportunities around innovation within healthcare that drew Ron Gagnon, President and CEO of Grand River Hospital (GRH), to Ontario’s rich R&D ecosystem.

Ron Gagnon, President and CEO

GRAND

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“This area of Canada is well known for its innovative mindset, the large presence of the tech community, and the need to innovate around healthcare,” he opens.

“What the industry needs right now, not just in Ontario or Canada but around the world, is significant innovation and change. Innovation is becoming an everyday focus here in Canada; we need to be willing to think and do things differently, and to take risks at all levels.”

With more than two decades of experience in the healthcare sector, many of the challenges that face the industry today are not new to Gagnon, who joined GRH in 2018.

“Healthcare is at a critical point, but this isn’t something that has happened overnight. However, for people like myself who are hardwired to find solu tions to big problems, it is an exciting albeit challenging environment.

“When I look locally in Canada, the healthcare system needs to run in a way that meets the needs of the people, and we need to find a way to leverage technology,” Gagnon shares.

GRH is dedicated to improving care through innovation and research, as it enables high-performance programs, services and systems, nurtures effective and collaborative relationships, and promotes best practices.

To this end, GRH takes part in and leads a number of innovation and research projects to ensure that it remains at the forefront of best practices in care and service provision. Various departments within GRH also collaborate with academia, as well as government and private agencies, to participate in clinical trials that contribute to improved patient care.

COMMUNITY CARE

Situated in Kitchener, GRH is one of Ontario’s largest and busiest community hospitals, serving a population of around 840,000 people in the immediate region of Waterloo and the adjacent Wellington area.

GRH VALUES AT A GLANCE

CARE! – Engaged, invested, and there for one another, GRH brings its best every day to deliver high-quality, safe care.

TRUST AND BE TRUSTWORTHY – Keeping its word and believing others will too.

COURAGE TO START, HEART TO FINISH – Having the courage to innovate and continuously raise the bar.

WELCOME ONE TO WELCOME ALL – Valuing all individuals and all perspectives within the organization.

“The value-based culture that we’re building helps to differentiate us, and last year we were recognized by Forbes as one of Canada’s best employers,” Gagnon reveals.

GRH’s broad range of regional care services is delivered by an outstanding team of over 5,000 highly experienced, knowledgeable and compassionate professionals at two large campuses and several satellite locations.

“What struck me early on when I joined the organization is the people of GRH, and the spirit of having each other’s back and stepping up to what’s needed for the communities that we serve,” Gagnon emphasizes.

For patients in need of emergency care or treatment for disease, severe illness or injury, GRH’s

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Cloud-based, paperless, automation, Integration - these have become buzzwords in a digital world that relies on advanced technology to support the needs of today’s teams. As a key partner, NOW Solutions is proud to celebrate Grand River Hospital’s continued growth. NOW Solutions is able to easily support the hospital’s ongoing needs as they grow in size and complexity, with added sites and specialties, through its flagship software, emPath®.

emPath® is a web-based solution offering integrated payroll, human resources, recruitment, scheduling, benefits and talent management, as well as advanced report ability with workforce analytics.

With this solution, organizations are able to seamlessly integrate HR and payroll functions with comprehensive administrative and workflow capabilities, and easily interface with third-party solutions. With emPath® providing a self-service portal for employees and managers, companies increase employee empowerment and selfsufficiency. emPath® can be deployed in-house or through its cloud offering, each with benefits that align with the organization’s operations and goals.

Keeping pace with an ever-evolving digital landscape

Cloud-based/SaaS platforms are becoming the go-to solutions across most industries around the world.

NOW Solutions excels on this delivery model with the ability to offer either single or multi-tenancy, allow for easy integration with other solutions through restful APIs, while being fully compliant with security and privacy industry standards.

With emPath®’s integration capabilities and versatility, an ERP solution is no longer needed as

our solution can communicate fluidly with other supporting applications. Unlike companies that sell ERP systems, we focus on doing one thing and doing it well - and that’s providing a best-of-breed system that meets the requirements of organizations with complex HR and payroll structures.

“Our clients typically have complex HR, benefit and payroll demands with the need to automate such onerous tasks as step-rates and multi-position employees with multiple bargaining units. Our rulesbased solutions support these needs and eliminate the need for reminders, missed increases, manual changes or errors.

“Many of our clients want to focus on their core business and need to reduce their IT footprint. Using our SaaS (cloud) solution offers tremendous relief.” – Marianne Malcolm, President, NOW Solutions.

Growing with Grand River Hospital

For over 20 years, NOW Solutions has helped Grand River Hospital save hundreds and thousands of dollars from inefficient processes and additional labour. With emPath®, HR staff and managers can focus on employees and the significant day-to-day demands of a hospital.

NOW Solutions provides 24/7 access, periodic software updates, rapid deployment, full-service backups, and disaster recovery to support our clients. We grow with you by continuing to fine-tune and enhance our products based on customer feedback and constraints. Our advancements in technology make a significant difference for forward-thinking organizations like Grand River Hospital.

At NOW Solutions, we don’t just wait for the future. We embrace it.

The present and future of web-based HRMS emPath® is a robust solution from NOW Solutions that revolutionizes the way large organizations manage HR and payroll functions.

A

TO HEALTH CARE

INTRODUCING: CONSUMER-INITIATED HEALTH SCREENING

At EpiTOme our mission is to empower Canadians to have greater control of their health through direct access to high-quality health & wellness Screening tools.

In 2023, our suite of screening kits will be available through pharmacies and our ecommerce site, allowing you to purchase, swab at home, ship to our lab and have physician reviewed results delivered to your inbox. IT”S THAT SIMPLE.

TWO LOCAL COMPANIES PLAY MAJOR BUT QUIET ROLE IN PANDEMIC

Throughout the pandemic, often overlooked and unsung heroes within our community were brought to the forefront as their roles became more prominent in the fight against COVID-19. Yes, we will be forever grateful for the doctors and nurses who put their personal health and safety, as well as those of their families, on the line day in and day out. But if you look a little deeper there’s a layer of support workers who, while not viewed traditionally as “frontline”, were equally essential in our battle. They include the orderlies, personal support workers, healthcare administrators, phlebotomists and lab staff who played a supportive yet critical role and were often in the shadows cast by the spotlight being directed at others. COVID-19 required an immense level of sustained physical and mental energy from all allied healthcare workers who our region, province and country will be forever grateful for.

Locally, there were two companies who quietly played a major role nationally throughout the pandemic; Seegene Canada and EpiTOme Genetics.

Seegene Inc., is a global leader in molecular diagnostics and its Canadian subsidiary, Seegene Canada was instrumental in ensuring public health labs and hospitals, including Grand River,

had the swabs, reagents and equipment needed to meet demand. Seegene Canada’s Founder and CEO, Jamie Yantzi is a Kitchener native (born at Grand River Hospital) and a System’s Design graduate from the University of Waterloo. “Using AI, we were able to develop a PCR COVID test faster than our global competitors and ramp up production and supply efforts to ensure our customers were equipped with the best solutions and tools to tackle the pandemic.” Yantzi estimates Seegene supplied 40-50 percent of all PCR COVID tests across Canada over the last 24 months. With their equipment now functioning in labs across Canada, Seegene is deploying other tests from its extensive menu including Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), Human Papillomavirus (HPV), Gastrointestinal (GI) and others.

One of the systemic gaps that was amplified during the pandemic was the lack of a public health or community-based lab within the region. By comparison, Windsor, London, Hamilton, Burlington, Toronto, Barrie and Ottawa all have community-based labs which were operating at capacity to process COVID tests, translating to quicker processing times within those regions. Enter Kitchener’s EpiTOme Genetics. Although not officially recognized as a community lab by the province, EpiTOme is one of only seven medical laboratories in Ontario to be licensed by the

The Seegene STARlet is a robotic liquid handling platform that automates processing up to 700 tests/day

Ministry of Health and have its ISO accreditation. “Although we weren’t able to contribute our capacity and expertise to process COVID tests in Ontario, we helped other provinces with capacity issues when they needed it most,” says David Erb, who’s a partner at EpiTOme. “Some provinces were regularly flying tests into Breslau airport to be processed at our lab overnight with results sent electronically the next morning. It was an honor to be involved in that way.”

In addition to extensive workplace testing programs, while international travel restrictions were in place, EpiTOme formed partnerships with most national pharmacy brands to offer PCR testing for travel.

In a post-COVID world, EpiTOme is refocusing around its core mission of providing clientinitiated health and wellness screening tools directly to Canadians. “Like never before, COVID put Canadians in greater control of their health. We are all comfortable with the concept of athome diagnostics and we’re launching a suite of at-home health and wellness test kits that will empower people to live healthier lives,” says Erb. These kits will be available for purchase through pharmacies and online with self-collection in the privacy of your home. The collected sample is then shipped in a postage paid mailer to the lab

for immediate processing with physician reviewed results delivered directly to your inbox. Watch for these tests on the shelves of local pharmacies in early 2023.

What’s next for these two companies with strong local ties? Seegene and EpiTOme are collaborating to develop and deploy next generation liquid biopsy tests for important cancer biomarkers that, if detected early enough, will greatly improve health outcomes for cancer patients.

On the partnership, Erb says “Canada has an amazing healthcare system that delivers exceptional treatment following a diagnosis. We’re focused on prevention and are dedicated to bringing health and wellness screening tools to market to ensure we’re catching those serious diseases as early as possible.”

In closing Seegene’s Yantzi says “Waterloo Region is known globally as a innovation and technology hotspot responsible for the launch and success of high-tech companies that have revolutionized most aspects of our lives. The next wave of innovation will be in the digital health sector where big data will be used to convert the A's, T's, C's and G's of the genetic code into 0's and 1's to make valuable healthcare decisions and insights.”

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www.seegene.com

Kitchener-Waterloo (KW) Campus provides acute, diagnostic and surgical care services with the goal of recovery and for patients to return home or to a setting that best meets their needs.

Freeport Campus, meanwhile, is a key partner in recovery and rehabilitation for patients who live with complex health conditions or require follow-up care for recent illnesses or injuries.

Complemented by six partner locations for cancer and kidney care, as well as three community treatment centers, GRH strives to provide exceptional, world-class care.

“We deliver our inpatient and ambulatory care service from our two main sites, which have 683 beds between them,” Gagnon tells us.

Given there is no shortage of oppor tunities in the region to trial different technologies, with leading experts in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) right on the hospital’s doorstep, GRH is exploring the use of AI and ML together with the University of Waterloo to support its world-class patient care and services.

GRH, whose total revenue last year totalled $516 million, is also partnering with Google to explore the development of an AI algorithm to triage cases, as well as investing in digital pathology.

“We believe that digital pathology is crucial to support our proposed neurosurgery program, which is one of the new services we’re working on bringing to the community in partnership with the Hamilton Health Sciences Center,” states Gagnon.

“We’re also currently piloting two innovative solutions, namely dual layer X-ray imaging and an AI-driven insights tool to predict patients’ clinical risk of mortality or admission to intensive care. Our investment in translation services has also been really helpful for newcomers to Canada and those who don’t identify English as their preferred language

GRH PLAN 2021-25

STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS

DELIVER A WORLD-CLASS EXPERIENCE FOR PATIENTS, FAMILIES AND TEAM MEMBERS – GRH values people above all else and aims to make a positive difference in their lives every day. The experience of patients, families, team members, and partners will be put at the very top of GRH’s agenda.

PARTNER TO CREATE A WORLD-CLASS HEALTH SYSTEM – GRH will be an engaged partner, working with partners, patients and their families to co-develop a truly worldclass system to advance the health and health outcomes of people in the community.

INNOVATE AND TRANSFORM HEALTHCARE DELIVERY – GRH will leverage the collective talents and strengths of the hospital, community, and partners to innovate and accelerate the transformation of healthcare delivery.

for communication, so there’s a lot of exciting changes happening on the innovation front.”

Equally, GRH is a proud community teaching hospital and a preferred destination for learners from a number of disciplines.

Although it is not an official Academic Health Sciences Center (AHSC), the hospital provides a substantial amount of high-caliber education to over 1,100 on-site learners every year.

“We’re able to accomplish that through a number of affiliation agreements with different colleges and universities throughout Ontario and Canada,” Gagnon highlights.

FACILITIES FOR THE FUTURE

To meet the needs of communities in the Waterloo region, one of the fastest-growing areas in Canada, GRH is working together with St. Mary’s General Hospital (St. Mary’s), also in Kitchener, to plan for the future of hospital-based services.

– RON GAGNON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, GRAND RIVER HOSPITAL

Mohawk Medbuy

Supporting quality patient care, operational insights and efficiencies through innovative supply chain and back-office services.

The global pandemic revealed the criticality of supply chain to the delivery of patient care. When demand for PPE surged at its onset, Mohawk Medbuy (MMC), a leading healthcare shared services organization, stepped up and stood out as a key resource – sourcing essential medical supplies and lifesaving drugs for care providers and the Province of Ontario.

MMC supports hundreds of Canadian hospitals – including Grand River Hospital – by negotiating largescale contracts for capital (FF&E) and medical products and services on their behalf. Last year, hospitals utilized MMC contracts for more than $1.4 billion of their purchases. “By consolidating spend, we generate savings that hospitals are able to reallocate to frontline care,” said Tony DiEmanuele, MMC’s President and CEO.

The Ontario government recently committed to investing $5 million to support the planning for the joint project, to build a new acute care facility and expand and renew existing infrastructure in the region.

As the community continues to grow, the pressure on regional hos pitals such as GRH will only increase without new and expanded facilities that leverage the innovation and technology available in the area. GRH and St. Mary’s have also outgrown their aging buildings, with parts of the hos pitals dating back over a century.

Gagnon describes the joint project with St. Mary’s as a “generational project”, one that will change the lives of people for years to come.

“The new state-of-the-art acute care site would be shared by both hospi tals to house our regional programs,

including St. Mary’s regional cardiac program,” he outlines.

“The vision is also to renew and repur pose our existing GRH campuses as a highly specialized center for ambula tory and urgent care services, and give others the opportunity to co-locate on that property as well.”

Subject to change, the proposals will increase patient capacity across both hospitals by over 500 beds, and provide more clinical spaces such as intensive care units, emergency rooms, and modern operating theaters.

Plans for the new joint hospital, including its location, will be determined at a later stage after important consultations with relevant stakeholders such as the local community, hospital teams, health system partners, and government authorities.

Along with procurement and contract management, MMC also provides warehousing and logistics, accounts payable and linen services. But what sets the organization apart is its resiliency and focus on innovation. “Our collaborative approach – with member hospitals and the vendor community – has allowed us to develop unique programs to address the pain points facing health care,” said DiEmanuele.

MitigAID™ is just one example. The program notifies health care providers of manufacturer supply disruptions for 160,000+ items, identifies substitute products and tracks resolutions via a comprehensive digital platform supported by MMC’s robust data management and analytics capabilities. On more than 5,000 occasions, MitigAID has helped reduce patient risk and lighten hospital workloads.

“WHAT THE INDUSTRY NEEDS RIGHT NOW, NOT JUST IN ONTARIO OR CANADA BUT AROUND THE WORLD, IS SIGNIFICANT INNOVATION AND CHANGE”

Delivering value, innovation & insight to health care

Mohawk Medbuy has demonstrated a unique capacity to innovate through the development of customer-centric programs like MitigAID™, Qwantify™, PPEplus™, OHTconnect™ and others. Individually, they each address a specific pain point of hospitals and other care providers – from managing supply disruptions to automating replenishment to bringing new savings opportunities to primary care providers.

Collectively, they demonstrate the collaborative, solutionsminded approach of Canada’s leading, not-for-profit, health care shared services organization – and explain our continued growth. It’s just the beginning, as we embark on new ESG initiatives and collaborate with Indigenous partners to help create better, more sustainable health care in Canada.

The next steps also include engagements to further identify the services that the community needs, and how to deliver the project in the fastest possible timeline.

“The challenge in Ontario is that these types of developments take somewhere between 10 and 15 years, on average,” Gagnon says.

Though it will take time to implement these changes for a stronger healthcare system for the Waterloo region and beyond, GRH and St. Mary’s are ensuring that the community is kept engaged and informed throughout the project.

“We take great pride in the way that we collaborate within the healthcare system. It’s very much about how we all succeed together.”

In the meantime, GRH has developed a mid-term plan, which includes a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) project that is close to conclusion.

“In addition to adding a new MRI, what we’ve been able to do with the existing MRI machine is essentially rebuild it on-site. At the end of that rebuild process, we will have a second new MRI without having to go through all of the construction processes and disruption related to it,” adds Gagnon.

“There’s a new MRI machine coming to St. Mary’s as well. When I joined GRH in 2018, we had only one hospital-based MRI between the two hospitals, so it was significantly underserviced.”

Carmichael Engineering

Do you wish you could extend the service life of your Chillers, while optimizing performance and maximizing efficiency?

Grand River Hospital did just that. They partnered with Carmichael to refurbish their 22 year old chiller including a complete compressor overhaul and new purge unit, bringing its performance back to original factory specifications.

Carmichaels Chiller Team can:

• Rebuild chillers extending their service life.

• Predictive maintenance services such as Open and Inspect and Eddy Current Testing to identify worn parts and replace before failure.

• Vibration analysis and thermographic scanning.

• Chiller Plant Optimization.

• Energy retrofit projects.

• VFD and soft start upgrades.

• Chiller Panel replacements.

• Chiller regasketing to prevent costly leaks.

• Operation and preventative maintenance programs.

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“I’VE BEEN HUMBLED BY THE SPIRIT, STRENGTH, AND CAPABILITY OF OUR LEADERS AND THE ENTIRE TEAM”

– RON GAGNON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, GRAND RIVER HOSPITAL

FINDING A WAY

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated challenges already entrenched in the healthcare system and has highlighted the need for new and improved hospital infrastructure in the region.

The pandemic was nevertheless a great example of how the team at GRH leveraged their talent to help develop new relationships across Ontario and the provincial healthcare system, to add new capacity and services in the community.

“We added 150 beds to our operation in a very short period of time. It goes back to that culture of finding a way and mentality of getting things done,” Gagnon tells us.

“For sure, it was quite unprecedented. I would say I’ve been humbled by the spirit, strength, and capability of our leaders and the entire team. None of what we have accomplished would have been possible without them.

“Likewise, we couldn’t have achieved anywhere near as much without the strong working partnerships that we have with other hospitals and community partners in the area. Nobody has been in it for themselves, and it required all of us to think differently about the ways we can work together to support and protect communities,” he continues.

Since the start of the pandemic, GRH has cared for close to 2,000 COVID-positive patients, performed more than 240,000 COVID-19 tests, and managed a regional vaccination center that provided over 330,000 COVID-19 vaccinations. Taking into account pharmacies and other smaller vaccination sites, this single regional center provided the greatest number of vaccines for the community.

“These have been some of the most challenging times that we’ve ever experienced in healthcare, and the team has tirelessly put the lives of others ahead of their own interests.

They showed up and brought their best every day, and I think they’ve had a real positive impact on the people that we serve,” Gagnon acknowledges.

In addition, almost 50 million pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been distributed by GRH’s purpose-built supply chain, which also supplied hospitals across southwestern Ontario and other community providers.

The safety of patients and staff was one of the non-negotiables set out by GRH at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the willingness to think and do things differently.

CPDN HELPS HOSPITALS FOCUS ON PATIENT CARE

“So far, our COVID-19 response has cost north of $200 million, so it has been a pretty significant effort.”

AIMING HIGH

GRH developed its Strategic Plan for 2021-25, branded as Aiming High, as it was responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inspired by the communities that it serves, the vision of the plan is to build a world-class health system supporting healthier lives. GRH is dedicated to seeing that vision realized, and this plan marks the beginning of the hospital’s journey along that path.

Three strategic directions, each with its own four key goals, have been identified by GRH to achieve the results that it is aspiring to: deliver a world-class experience for patients, families and team members; partner to create a world-class health system; and innovate and transform healthcare delivery.

The plan is informed by thousands of voices, from patients and families to hospital team members, partners and community leaders.

“We deliberately took a future-back approach, so instead of starting where we are today, we created that vision of a world-class health system for 10 years from now,” notes Gagnon.

“We worked our way back to where we are today to develop our plan, and we chose our vision to align with the world-class aspirations of the region that we serve. It’s not just about us as a hospital, it’s about supporting a larger system.”

GRH has also identified a number of specific measures of success, to benchmark and evaluate whether or not the Strategic Plan has realized its vision and achieved its goals.

“For both five- and 10-years’ time, we’ve set out objective measures as part of the success of our strategic plan,” he informs us.

“I’m extremely excited about the

plan that we’ve developed, and our path for the future.”

One of GRH’s key priorities for the years ahead is to continue to build out its efforts surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion. As one of the key strategic goals that will enable the hospital to deliver a world-class experience, GRH is creating structures and launching programs for longterm, sustainable change.

Equally, GRH will continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst driving much-needed healthcare innovation and research in Ontario and beyond.

Tel: 519-742-3611 Info@grhosp.on.ca www.grhosp.on.ca

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GRAND RIVER HOSPITAL Kitchener Waterloo Campus (Administrative Offices) P.O. Box 9056 835 King St. West Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 1G3

Freeport Campus 3570 King St. East Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2A 2W1 Tel: 519-742-3611 Info@grhosp.on.ca www.grhosp.on.ca