Message from the Chair of the Board of Trustees and the President and CEO
It has been an extraordinary year of progress, partnership and engagement for Lakeridge Health.
Over the last year, we undertook a historic community consultation, gathering more than 20,000 points of input from
the Lakeridge Health team, patients, families, partners, and the community. All of this feedback guided everything we do at Lakeridge Health.
In fiscal year 2018/19, we made significant improvements to the patient and family experience, with a special focus on
increasing patient satisfaction across all four Lakeridge Health Emergency Departments (EDs). Guided by results of broad-based consultations, we learned what matters most to patients, families, Patient and Family Experience Advisors, and the broader community to understand how to serve people better.
This information also informed the development of exciting new innovations to make the ED experience faster and easier to navigate. New ideas included implementation of a Patient Passport that explains how the ED works and how patients receive care, along with self-registration kiosks initially introduced at Oshawa Hospital in March 2019.
We also introduced and started to implement the Inclusion, Diversity and Engagement (IDE) Framework to support Lakeridge Health to better reflect all members of our community. We focused on collecting data about, and feedback from, diverse communities and used this information to guide our governance and decision-making structures and promote more people-centred care.
The Lakeridge Health community demonstrated its commitment to local health care delivery through its monumental support during the closure and restoration of Port Perry Hospital. The reopening of the hospital last September was an extraordinary example of community pride for North Durham and people throughout Durham Region
who supported Lakeridge Health throughout the hospital closure.
New and expanded services mean our community can receive life-sustaining and life-saving care closer to home. The Gynecologic Oncology Centre at R.S. McLaughlin Durham Regional Cancer Centre, the Rapid Access Addiction Medicine clinics, and the new Complex Continuing Care Unit at Bowmanville Hospital are a few of the new services
now available in Durham Region. We also made great progress in planning new services, including 22 new mental health beds coming to Ajax Pickering Hospital in fall 2019.
While we increased access to services, Lakeridge Health also took important steps to strengthen the delivery of high quality, safe care at all our locations. Our nursing team together with other disciplines moved toward becoming a Best Practice Spotlight Organization, using evidence and best practices to improve outcomes for seniors in
our hospitals.
At the same time as we have achieved great success, our hospitals are serving more people with complex medical needs. This has tested the local acute care system as we continue to have challenges transitioning people to the next stage of care outside of a hospital including long-term care and home care.
To support people to move to the next level of care and better meet the needs of our community, we expanded partnerships to make sure that people have access to the services they need both inside and outside the hospital. Our partnership with Carriage House Retirement Residence and Saint Elizabeth Health Care is helping seniors transition home safely after a hospital stay, while our partnership with home care providers is delivering life-changing at-home dialysis for those with chronic kidney disease.
As part of our effort to use digital technology to improve access to care, Lakeridge Health partnered with Durham College to use artificial intelligence (AI) to predict individual wait times in the Emergency Department.
And the planned North Pickering Health and Wellness Centre will offer hospital services, physician offices, urgent care, and community-based services, under one roof.
Over the past year, the Lakeridge Health team, patients, families, partners, and the community, worked together to map out a new Strategic Plan that reimagines health care in Durham Region. Our new Vision – One System. Best Health. – marks an exciting turning point for health care in our region.
Looking forward, our organization will take on a broader leadership role to improve the health and wellness of the people in Durham Region. We will build on our successes with a Lakeridge Health-wide effort to empower people to be active partners in their care. And we will continue to relentlessly pursue the highest standard of care and the safest
and healthiest workplace. We will also partner with health, social services, education, and other sectors to enable everyone to achieve their best health.
The Master Plan that will guide Lakeridge Health’s growth and development through the next 20 years is on track to be submitted to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care by summer 2019.
Our accomplishments and vision for the future are only possible because of the tremendous dedication, hard work and compassion of Lakeridge Health’s talented team and the entire community.
Thank you for your unwavering commitment to creating a leading health system that puts people first and will serve our great region for generations to come.
Sharon Cochran Matthew Anderson
Chair, Board of Trustees President and CEO