86th annual meeting of the Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital Trust
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The Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital (TDMH) Board of Directors held its 86th Annual Meeting of the Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital Trust to receive annual reports, financial statements and professional staff by-law amendments on Monday, June 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Duaine Nelson, TDMH Board, Chair; Crystal Houze, TDMH President and CEO; and Dr. Barry Roth, TDMH Chief of Staff, and others reflected on the accomplishments of TDMH for the 2012-13 fiscal year and acknowledged the work at TDMH over the past year has been fast-paced and has included many exciting initiatives as well as some challenges.
Highlights included:
• In January of last year, the Board of Directors initiated a recruitment process for a new President and CEO of TDMH and welcomed Crystal Houze in the fall of last year.
Duaine Nelson, Board Chair, “thanked Crystal Houze for her dedication and commitment to the hospital and for her vision and insight into the complexities of our healthcare system.”
• TDMH continues to support physician recruitment strategies and will continue to develop a comprehensive Medical Human Resource Plan to support the physician resource requirements over the next 5-10 years. Over the past year, TDMH has welcomed two new Family Medicine/ER physicians to bolster the existing pool of physicians and added two Internists and one Anaesthetist.
• In 2012-13, TDMH underwent a strategic planning process which involved a fulsome review of the Mission, Vision Values and strategic priorities, using a new Accountability Framework structure. Five key strategic priorities were identified: Quality Patient Care, Responsible Financial Management, Exceptional People, Progressive Leadership and Effective Collaboration.
Crystal Houze, President and CEO, stated that “TDMH has a strong foundation during this time of change and we look forward to working collaboratively to achieve our new vision – ‘An innovative community hospital delivering exceptional patient care’ – and to creating a new organization culture that focuses on our values of innovation, accountability, professionalism and compassion.”
• Over the past year, expectations have increased for hospitals to consider opportunities to work with partners and, therefore, the Boards in Ingersoll, Woodstock and Tillsonburg launched the Oxford Hospitals’ Integration Project. The goal of the initiative is to maximize use of system capacity to improve quality and access to acute services for Oxford and area residents.
“Much of the last year has been devoted to the hospitals’ participation in the Integration Project,” stated Dr. Barry Roth, Chief of Staff. “New and expanded opportunities for integration between the hospitals of Oxford County have been explored and TDMH continues to offer subspecialty services in Urology, Ophthalmology, Allergy and Gynaecology. These services allow Tillsonburg residents to receive subspecialty care close to home”.
• TDMH and AHI also entered into a Joint Venture Agreement for the purposes of identifying implementation and operating integration and common initiatives. There has been a consistent history of collaboration and partnership between the two hospitals, with the implementation of the shared CEO role, as well as other shared positions, that will now provide a solid footing on which to grow and develop enhanced health care delivery, efficiencies, innovation and solutions for the local health system.
“The Hospitals will be working together to accomplish a seamless system for the care of the patients we serve as well as the needs of our community,” said Duaine Nelson, TDMH Board Chair.
Crystal Houze added, “Both organizations have a lot of work ahead of us and the agreement will enable the hospitals to continue to work together to plan the next steps to best serve our commitment to integration and enhanced patient care.”
• In collaboration with the Thames Valley Hospital Planning Partnership, TDMH launched the Healthcare Undergoing Optimization (HUGO) Project. The mandate of the Project is to implement a full Electronic Patient Record (EPR) to enhance quality and patient safety by maximizing the power of the Cerner System. The initiative is important milestone for TDMH and the anticipated “go-live” date is early winter 2014.
• The yearly Hospitals Services Accountability Agreement (H-SAA) with the SW LHIN requires all hospitals have a balanced budget. In 2012-13, however, TDMH had an operating deficit of $355,880 that the LHIN allowed to be funded through the Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital’s working capital.