March 2013

HSN Seniors Summit Engages Community

HSN held the first in a series of public forums on March 5, focusing on seniors issues. Over 250 people attended the free public session, called “Designing A More Seniors-friendly Community”, held in the Vale Cavern of Science North.

A panel of expert speakers addressed topics such as housing, architecture, urban planning, social services and leisure activities from a seniors point of view. Presentations were followed by a question and answer session, in which audience members provided feedback on the information presented.

“We were pleased that so many private citizens and community partners attended the session,“ says Dr. Denis Roy. “It’s clear that our community wants to have a dialogue about the issues facing seniors. We plan to host other public forums over the coming months. This type of public engagement is a key part of our mandate to promote health in our community.”

Speakers for the evening included Eva Mazerolle, a senior citizen and long-time advocate for seniors issues; Kris Longston, Senior Planner, City of Greater Sudbury; Dr. Terrance Galvin, Director, Laurentian University School of Architecture and Esmonde Crawley, International Editor- in-Chief, Over 50s Housing Weekly News.

The forum was moderated by John Lindsey, Chair of Friendly to Seniors Sudbury, and Réjean Grenier, Secretary of the provincial Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario.

During the forum, Esmonde Crawley officially presented an award to Dr. Denis Roy for being named the 2012 Over 50s Housing Weekly News Outstanding Regional Health Care Executive Worldwide.

HSN is planning a second public forum on seniors’ issues. It will be held on June 3rd and will focus on the health care system re-design required to better meet the needs of seniors. AMRIC and Cambrian College Sign Memorandum of Understanding

Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding, faculty and students at Cambrian would have access to AMRIC’s research facilities and be involved in projects with the Institute.

“We are very pleased to be working with AMRIC at HSN because this new collaboration will create more opportunities for students and faculty to build their potential and to develop scientific research right here in the north,” says Sylvia Barnard, Cambrian President. “Our faculty and students are already conducting health research at Cambrian through our Applied Research program, and this partnership will broaden our opportunities with a diverse team at a new institution.” The Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada (AMRIC) and Cambrian College have signed a five-year “This collaboration strengthens our mission to be an Memorandum of Understanding which would see both academic health sciences centre,” says Dr. Denis Roy, institutions collaborate on health research and training. President and CEO of HSN. “It provides us with the opportunity to conduct locally-based research which is “To develop a health sciences research hub in Sudbury we good for patients. It also enhances the skills and training need to foster relationships with key community partners of local students and boosts our ability to recruit and retain like Cambrian College,” says Dr. Francisco Diaz-Mitoma, Cambrian College graduates.” AMRIC CEO and Vice President of Research at HSN. “By working together, we have a greater ability to attract health- related research projects, investments and talent to Greater Sudbury, which benefits patient care, creates high-income jobs, builds intellectual capital, and enhances the reputation of our city.”

ONTraC: Reducing Blood Transfusion Rates

The Ontario Transfusion Coordinators program (ONTraC) The nurse-based teams who are involved was set up across 25 major hospitals, including HSN, in in educating patients, and the doctors an effort to reduce transfusions and assist the province in who are working to identify patients conserving the limited and costly blood supply. with anemia, have played integral roles in the success The program was recently featured in the Toronto Star. of the ONTraC program. Huge Over the past decade, St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto advances have been made in has spear-headed this province-wide program, which has terms of health care costs savings, resulted in a dramatic decrease in blood transfusion rates as well as a better utilization of the for elective heart bypass and joint replacement surgeries. provinces blood supply. With this program, overall blood transfusion rates during heart bypass surgeries has decreased from 60% to 25% HSN is proud to play a role in this and from 25% to 10% in knee replacement surgeries. worthwhile initiative. This month I will begin my second round of CEO unit I am looking forward to discussing the plan with you and to meetings with staff. The purpose of these meetings is to discover, together, how we can further develop the pillars of share with you our new strategic plan that will guide Health our academic mandate. At the core of our work will be our Sciences North over the next five years. drive to become more patient-centered.

Why is a strategic plan important for an organization? A I look forward to the path we have set with this new strategic plan is like a roadmap that helps shape and guide strategic plan. It is a course that will greatly benefit our an organization -- who it serves, what it does, and why it community and our patients. does it with a focus on the future.

Our strategic plan not only articulates where we are headed as an organization, it also helps to keep us on course as we work together towards common goals.

Successful Accreditation for Laboratory

Congratulations to the Laboratory on achieving a four year Ontario Laboratory Accreditation. Since its inception, the Lab’s Quality Management Program has been working toward the goal of being internationally recognized as a competent provider of accreditation to medical laboratories.

HSN’s 2012 OLA Accreditation status is now recognized internationally and the new certificate displays the OLA 15189 Plus™ accreditation symbol. The Lab’s Quality Management Program is now able to use this symbol on test reports, operational documents and advertising material as a sign of their world-wide accreditation status.

Congratulations to everyone in the laboratory services for their continued diligence and commitment to improve laboratory processes. This effort results in excellent care provided to the patients we serve at HSN!

Editor: Loretta Bostrom Dialogue is published for HSN employees.

We’d Like to Hear From You! Dialogue is your publication. We welcome your comments, suggestions, and story ideas for future issues. Please forward your submissions to [email protected], or via inter-office mail to Loretta Bostrom, Communications (ext. 3638, Ramsey Lake Health Centre). New Community Crisis Model Making Impact

A new approach to providing community-based mental The downtown location is accessible and well appreciated health crisis care is leading to significant benefits for by our community. Youth in particular have been early individuals living in our community, as well as benefits for adopters of the new model and seem to highly favour the our Emergency Department and Greater Sudbury Police downtown location over the Emergency Department. Services. Additionally, the impact of training nearly 300 staff at On October 1, 2012, a new Community Crisis Model Greater Sudbury Police Services is paying off. Police are opened its doors at HSN’s Sudbury Mental Health and diverting, on average, 8 clients per month to community Addictions Centre at 127 Cedar, which provides urgent crisis rather than ED. mental health care for those feeling overwhelmed and offers a calm and more private environment away from There has been a 24% decrease in overall apprehensions the hospital’s busy emergency department. As part of the under the Mental Health Act (47 fewer apprehensions new model’s approach to better serve the community, the compared to the same period last year). With fewer downtown location at 127 Cedar St is now open seven trips to the Emergency Department, police are saving days a week from 8:30 AM to 10:00 PM. The Crisis Mobile approximately 60 hours per month in time spent by officers Outreach team has also expanded its hours to 7 days per in the ED. week. Thank you to everyone involved for their hard work. This The community is responding very positively to the new model of care is providing positive results for our changes. Since the launch of the new model, there has community and is resulting in quality care for all of our been a significant shift in volume to the community & patients and clients. away from ED, including:

• A 12% reduction in ED visits for patients with a mental health issue in first 3 months of operation • An 85% increase in mobile outreach visits to people in the community • A 100% increase in overall crisis visits in the last 5 months (compared to the same period last year)

Claire Gignac: CTTS-M HSN is proud to announce that Registered Nurse, Claire optimal clinical protocols, recommendations and implement Gignac, is one of only three Canadians who has recently tobacco management in our healthcare system. obtained a Master Tobacco Treatment Specialist (CTTS-M) certificate through the University of Massachusetts Medical Claire looks forward to bringing her new knowledge to School. the work she is presently doing as Clinical Educator and Tobacco Control Cessation “A Certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist-Master is a Nurse for Corporate & professional who possesses the skills, knowledge and Mental Health at HSN as training to provide effective, evidence-based interventions well as her work with the for tobacco dependence across a range of intensities,” Smoking Policy Improvement said Gignac. “A CTTS-M may work in a variety of settings Committee. With the CTTS-M including but not limited to hospitals, community health certificate, Claire is able to centers, medical and dental practices, educational settings, provide extra knowledge social service agencies, public health organizations, drug required to promote the abuse treatment programs and mental health centres. They concepts of evidence- may also engage in providing counselling and in educating based principles regarding others about tobacco dependence treatments.” treatment for nicotine dependence, understanding At HSN, Gignac attempts to better understand and treat of pharmalogical treatment tobacco users based on their biological, psychological and how to address special and social addiction to nicotine. She works with other concerns and issues that professionals within the hospital setting to bring forward affect their clients. Stacey Roles Earns Appointment at the School of Nursing Stacey Roles, RN, Stacey earned her RN diploma from Cambrian College MScN, has recently in 2003 and her RN degree with Laurentian University been appointed Adjunct in 2005. In 2009, she enrolled in the Advanced Practice Professor in the School Stream of the MScN program in the School of Nursing of Nursing at Laurentian at Laurentian University and completed her degree part- University. She is time while continuing to work full time in her role as Nurse currently the Community Clinician. During this time, Stacey completed a research Treatment Order Planner project focusing on the early prediction of patients at risk with the Psychosocial of being restrained or secluded while admitted to the Rehabilitation Team of Psychiatric Intensive Care (PIC) Unit. The results of her the Mental Health and paper were disseminated through several provincial and Addictions Program national research conferences. The strength of the results (MHAP) at HSN. and the potential clinical utility has resulted in the initiation of a multi-site study involving two other major psychiatric institutions in Ontario. Stacey has held a variety of positions at HSN, including Nurse Clinician/Educator for MHAP and a range of clinical Following her convocation in the fall of 2012, Stacey positions with Acute Inpatient Psychiatry, Transitional decided to pursue an appointment as Adjunct Faculty at Outpatient Services, and Central Intake. Prior to working at Laurentian University with the goal of supervising graduate HSN, she gained experience at the Regional Mental Health nursing students clinical placements & research activities. Care facility in London, Ontario and at the Woodstock With her recently completed graduate degree and her new Public Health Unit, where she worked with the Sexual appointment, Stacey hopes to play a significant role in Health Team and Needle Exchange Program. In the past the fulfillment of HSN’s mandate as an academic health two years Stacey had also worked part time as the Clinical science centre. Congratulations Professor Stacey! Specialist for MHAP where she spearheaded the Restraint Reduction Task Force with AIP.

Actors Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively Donate Art Supplies to HSN The pair was in Sudbury recently while Reynolds filmed scenes for the new Atom Egoyan movie “Queen of the Night.” The art supplies were delivered to HSN by Christine Sola, the Sudbury Production Associate for the film, who arranged for Reynolds and Lively to visit HSN.

“Mr. Reynolds and Ms. Lively had planned to drop off these supplies when they paid their visit to HSN, but instead they wanted to focus on visiting with the children and their families in the Pediatrics Unit,” says Sola. “They asked me to make sure these supplies reached the children at HSN.”

“The children, families and staff of the Pediatric Unit are Front: Debbie Lahti, CQI Manager, Brittney Lavoie, nursing student thrilled by the generosity of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Back- left to right: Lisa Grace, Clinical Manager; Pauline Seguin, Lively”, adds Kim Warren, the Administrative Director of pediatric nurse; Kim Warren, Administrative Director; Christine the Family and Child Program at HSN. “This wonderful Sola, Film Production Associate; Suzanna Bradbury, Pediatric contribution will act as great distraction tools for roughly Nurse. 40 children. We are so excited and appreciative for the donation and time spent with the children; we are forever Actors Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have followed up grateful.” a visit to the Pediatric Unit of HSN with a donation of art supplies to the kids in care. The first health chair in research, announced by HSN in HSN receives Funding August 2012 was established to investigate and develop advances in geriatric care and medicine. Dr. Janet McElhaney, is the holder of this position and is a renowned for Chair in Geriatric clinician and researcher, recognized globally for her contributions to research directed at the elderly. She is the Research Medical Lead for Seniors Care at HSN as well as a Senior Scientist at the Advanced Medical Research Institute of Canada (AMRIC).

Dr. McElhaney’s research interests include developing new and effective vaccines and the role vaccination plays in preventing disability and frailty in older adults. This new funding ensures that Dr. McElhaney will continue her leading edge research which addresses critical needs of an aging population and will evaluate and establish new health care services and systems to assist the elderly in the northern Ontario region.

On March 12, 2013, Rick Bartolucci, MPP for Sudbury, Health care for seniors is one of the most pressing made a funding announcement to support the HSN issues facing our community, and we’re committed to Volunteer Association Chair in Geriatric Research. The being leaders in developing the most advanced, effective Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) models of care for seniors. AMRIC’s vision is to build a has committed $598,185 over 5 years to support the initial strong research program that targets geriatrics, infectious investment of $450,000 by its sponsor, the HSN Volunteer diseases, chronic diseases and cancers, the key health Association. concerns and priorities of the North.

“Make the Pledge” ColonCancerCheck Awareness Campaign

On March 6, staff were encouraged to visit the ColonCancerCheck photo booth in the main lobby to “Make the Pledge” to talk to their health care provider about screening for colorectal cancer or to pass on life saving information to friends and family.

Staff who had their photo taken with the iconic ‘see- through man’ had it uploaded to the Cancer Care Ontario Facebook page. They also received a printed postcard with their photo to either give to their health care provider or to a friend or family member to serve as a reminder to get screened.

In 2012, an estimated 8,700 Ontarians were diagnosed with colorectal cancer and roughly 3,450 died from the disease. Cancer screening sees what you can’t. When caught early, there is a 90% chance that people with colorectal cancer will be cured!

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Prevention estimates that if all adults aged 50 or older had regular screening tests for colon cancer, as many as 60 per cent of the deaths from colorectal cancer could be prevented. Hospital Without Complement Corner

Walls The following letter appeared in the March 12 issue of the Northern Life: How does a patient in a remote or rural community receive specialized care from health-care experts hundreds of kilometres away, without ever leaving home? The answer is telemedicine, and some of the best telemedicine in the world is being practiced in Ontario, including at HSN.

HSN is one of the largest users of telemedicine in Ontario. On March 14, the telemedicine department at HSN held an open house to demonstrate how the service works.

HSN is part of the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN), one of the largest providers of telemedicine services in the world. OTN facilitates the delivery of clinical care and education at more than 1,600 sites across the Province. OTN is an independent, not- for-profit organization funded by the Government of Ontario.

HSN conducts approximately 7,055 telemedicine consultations every year, making it one of the largest users of the OTN system. At HSN, the latest in video- teleconferencing technology is used to connect health care professionals with patients at other OTN sites across northeastern Ontario and the province.

A telemedicine appointment works just like a regular appointment in a doctor’s office. The patients are able to see, hear and speak with a doctor or other health care professional who appears on a screen. While the consultation is taking place, the health care professional can use special tele-diagnostic equipment to monitor the patient as though they were in the same room.

At HSN, telemedicine is used most commonly for initial consults and follow-ups, across a wide variety of therapeutic areas of care, from pediatrics to geriatric medicine. Facebook, Twitter and Privacy

While HSN does not yet have a Facebook page or Twitter Telling your friends about your day on Facebook is not account, we realize that many people have their own appropriate. personal accounts and use them regularly. Unwise use of Facebook and Twitter, even privately, poses risk to the For example: privacy of our patients. • “That doctor/nurse/supervisor xxxx I work with is a real xxxx”; or Facebook users reveal a lot of personal information to • “I’m going to be late getting home because the guy in new friends, including ones they don't know well or have that big car accident today was brought in and he was never met. Every time you post something to Facebook you really xxxx”; or should assume that the whole world will know what you've • “I had a really bad day because the father of the guy posted; your family, your employer, the government, and you saw on 9N went xxxx today” people you don't trust. Various pieces of information from different sources can be Twitter allows friends, family, and coworkers to stay used to identify a patient or family member. Patients must connected by exchanging quick and frequent answers to agree before you can provide any of their information on one simple question – what are you doing? Your tweets Facebook or Twitter. are publicly searchable by all who look for specific topics on the Internet. Thought of the Day: Before you click, ask yourself: “If I were the patient, would I want my picture or health details Patients expect privacy! Facebook and Twitter can easily posted on Facebook or sent by Twitter for the world to violate that privacy. Here are some examples of privacy know?” breaches, even if you didn’t mean any harm: • Patient’s name • Description of the patient and/or the reason for admission • Any hospital identification numbers (account, OHIP, etc.) • Individual patient photographs or group photographs of people with other patients in the background Stay tuned for regular monthly privacy, security & confidentiality articles • Diagnosis in Dialogue. For more information, please contact the Chief Privacy • Any other personal characteristics and details that Officer at ext. 2350. Additional Privacy information is available from the could lead to identification of the patient Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario at www.ipc.ca.

HSN Celebrates the 10th Annual Oncology Nursing Day

With a combination of education, experience, quality and skills are used to manage care, oncology nurses are ‘inspiring change’ at HSN – symptoms and side- so let’s celebrate! Tuesday, April 2nd is the 10th annual effects of treatment, Oncology Nursing Day in Canada. The theme, ‘Inspiring assist patients in Change’, suits HSN’s vision well. The day is recognized to coping strategies, celebrate and recognize the profession country-wide. monitor the responses to HSN is celebrating their nurses in a variety of ways. treatment, and Oncology nurses will be joining nurses across the country teach self-care in a flash mob in the main foyer. All participants will be behaviours. wearing a distinctive Oncology Nursing Day t-shirt. For more information Oncology Nurses work in specialized inpatient settings, on the 10th Annual such as an oncology unit, supportive care setting, or a Oncology Nursing Day community setting offering palliative care. Their specific visit www.cano-acio.ca.