Everything Matters Norfolk General Hospital The Norfolk Hospital Nursing Home 2008/2009 Annual Reports to The Community Norfolk General Hospital Foundation At the most unexpected moment you may fi nd you need to place your health or your life in the hands of others. Or hard decisions that aff ect the ones you love may rest in your hands. At those times, you need to trust in the skill and experience of others and... J. William C. Lewis at those times “everything matters.” President and C.E.O. A Message from the President and C.E.O. Through this Report we hope to give you a in the hospital. These are typically patients General Hospital and at The Norfolk Hospital glimpse into this past year and what matters who would be transferred out of the hospital Nursing Home. We are proud of the level of skill at Norfolk General Hospital. This is our way of if there was a place available for them in a and commitment of our entire team. nursing home or hospice, etc. These people being accountable to the community about In fact others are also recognizing our team’s need what is called “alternate level of care” what is happening at the hospital and what it skill level. NGH is now a designated teaching site or ALC. Many of these people wait in the means to you. for providing Emergency Department rotations hospital, sometimes for months, because You may already be aware that by far for medical students from McMaster University. there is no other place for them to go. the biggest challenge that Norfolk General The University places medical students at our Hospital faces is a fi nancial crisis. At 30%, Norfolk General Hospital has one hospital for training. of the highest percentages in Ontario of beds To give you a glimpse into this situation, It is our hope that these students may occupied by patients waiting for alternate this past fi scal year Norfolk General Hospital eventually return to become future doctors in care. had an operating defi cit of $1.1 million dollars. our community. This is not a good situation for the people This current year our Local Health Integration This past year we have placed further waiting in these beds or for the hospital. Network requires that we recover this defi cit emphasis on patient safety and have The acute care units of a hospital can be and have a balanced budget. This will erode signifi cantly enhanced the safety culture at noisy, privacy isn’t always optimum and daily our resources and means we will have NGH in all departments. We’ve implemented a exercise and attention is limited. limited ability to purchase or replace capital host of new safety initiatives. This includes an equipment. In the hospital the rising number of increased emphasis on hand hygiene for all Like other smaller hospitals in Ontario, we alternate level of care patients is causing a bed healthcare workers as well as those visiting the are in this situation because the funding we crisis, disruption and bed shortage for new hospital. admissions in the Emergency Department receive from the government isn’t keeping up I am continually grateful to our medical staff , and elsewhere. Sometimes people complain with infl ation. This year government funding employees and volunteers who are highly and are frustrated. increased by 2.2% but the cost to operate skilled and compassionate caregivers. These our hospital increased by about 5% due in We want you to know that we understand individuals rise above and beyond to care for part to infl ation and to a growing and aging your frustration and that this is a provincial you, your families and your communities. I also population that is demanding more from our wide problem in Ontario hospitals. The want to thank our committed Donors and Board facility. government has introduced some strategies of Directors who give personally and fi nancially To address our fi nancial crisis we have to address the issue and we are expecting throughout the year. more announcements in the near future. developed a recovery plan which we are “Everything matters.” This is the theme implementing. This recovery plan has several In the meantime, at Norfolk General of this Report. These two words renew our parts including: Hospital we have daily bed meetings at commitment to you to try harder even in tough • Generating some additional revenue 10:00am to talk about how we are going to times, because having quality, local healthcare • Enhancing energy conservation manage the admissions coming in for that matters! • Retendering various contracts for supplies day. We also have a team in the Emergency • Improving effi ciency Department that helps keep patient fl ow Respectfully, • Improving utilization management activities moving as quickly and effi ciently as possible. J. William C. Lewis, President and C.E.O. In addition to the fi nancial challenges, one Although the past year has had its of the biggest hurdles we face on a daily basis challenges there is also good news to report. is the number of alternate level of care patients Our people remain our strength at Norfolk 2 Everything Matters NGH, NHNH, NGHF, 2008/09 Annual Reports to the community Highlights 2. Message from the President and C.E.O. 12. Year-end message from the Leadership 21. Recognition of Committed Donors 30. Financial Report Norfolk General Hospital 365 West Street, Simcoe, ON N3Y 1T7 Website: www.ngh.on.ca Telephone: 519-426-0130 4 Patient Safety Matters 14 Kindness Matters Creating a culture of safety to Growing stronger to meet the THIS REPORT IS PUBLISHED BECAUSE protect lives. care of our residents. as a publicly-funded health care institution, Norfolk General Hospital is accountable to the province and to the communities 7 Emergency Care Matters 16 Volunteering Matters we serve including the Hamilton The inside scoop on what’s In spite of the challenging times, Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network. happening in our Emergency we continue to be blessed. Department. THIS REPORT is part of our eff orts to improve information- sharing. Our Board of Directors is committed to practicing 8 New Technology Matters 18 Community Matters good governance, improving More people are making the trip Our committed donors continue the transparency around how Norfolk General Hospital’s Board to NGH to have laparoscopic to play a vital role at NGH. and leaders are addressing surgery. our signifi cant challenges, and demonstrating our accountability to you, the public we serve. 10 Skill Matters 30 Accountability Matters WE INVITE your feedback on Facing the challenge of bringing Balancing the budget and the Annual Report. For questions skilled healthcare professionals revealing the bottom line. or comments, contact Bill Lewis to Norfolk. President and C.E.O. at 519-429- 6976. Published in the spring, 2009, Copyright 2009, Norfolk General Cover: Dr. Tim Bard and his family enjoying Wellington Park in Simcoe. Hospital. All rights reserved. No Originally from Vancouver, Dr. Bard moved to Norfolk and is now an part of this publication may be internist at Norfolk General Hospital. reproduced or transmitted by any Cover photography: Thank you to Cindy Pichette of Silver Parrot Studio for means or in any form without her contribution. permission from Norfolk General Hospital. Annual Reports to the community 2008/09 3 Patient Safety Matters Creating a culture of safety to protect lives Report on Patient Safety Patient safety continues to be a very high priority at Norfolk As of April 30, 2009, all Ontario hospitals are required to annually General Hospital especially as we face an increase in elderly patients, post their hand hygiene compliance rates to further promote resource limitations and a shortage of healthcare professionals. We accountability and transparency within the health system. We want the community to know that patient safety matters and we post our hand hygiene compliance rates on our website at www. will be open and transparent during these challenging times. ngh.on.ca. Norfolk General Hospital is demonstrating our continued We strongly support the public reporting of patient safety commitment to patient safety by developing a host of new indicators because we believe it will inspire improved performance, initiatives. This past year we gave particular attention to developing enhance patient safety, and provide greater transparency to this action plans for six key areas of patient safety. These areas include: community. 1. Infection Control - we’ve implemented routine audits and a host of patient safety indicators that are continually monitored Receiving accreditation stamp of approval to help control infections. Thanks to the hard work of our entire team at NGH our hospital Hand Hygiene- we’re improving our hand hygiene culture 2. was well prepared for the accreditation review on throughout the hospital through a multi-faceted hand March 23-25, 2009. hygiene program - “Just clean your hands.” 3. Patient Falls - we’re decreasing harmful falls AAccreditationcc Canada is a voluntary assessment by implementing a falls assessment and pprocessro that hospitals across Canada use to intervention strategy. eevaluate and improve the quality of their services. 4. Medication Reconciliation - we’ve added Accreditation gives NGH the opportunity to an extra level of protection to ensure that evaluate our hospital against national standards. a patient’s medications are consistent The accreditation process lasts three days and even when they are admitted or when includes on site review and intense scrutiny they are being transferred or discharged. of 1,361 standards including patient safety. 5. Staff Immunization - we’re increasing Accreditation occurs every three years. staff immunization rates. This past year the J s NGH has consistently achieved accreditation u d immunization average rate for staff was 65.5% s n sstatust which means every three years we have t c ha which is above the average rate for the hospital lean your met nationally recognized standards for quality sector.