By: Rik Ganderton
President and CEO RVHS
To: All staff, physicians and volunteers of RVHS
Congratulations and a big thank you!
Thank you to all staff, physicians and volunteers! The work you do everyday at Rouge Valley lives up to our vision to be the best at what we do. I want to thank everyone involved in the Accreditation Canada survey that was completed Wednesday. The preliminary report presented yesterday to staff, physicians and volunteers, by the surveyors, was extremely positive and one that we should take great pride in. I want to thank you not only for the tremendous efforts by all related to the rigorous accreditation process, but also for the patient-focused work and improvements you have all actively driven forward at Rouge Valley Health System. The Accreditation Canada surveyors noticed. More importantly, our patients are noticing.
The surveyors’ report shined an external light on the progress and top-notch work you all perform.
We will get official notification of formal accreditation status in 10 days time. Overall, we believe our results are outstanding and we should all be extremely proud of the accomplishments we have made as a team.
There are several opportunities for improvement, which we welcome and will act upon. What makes even the opportunities for improvement so telling about the quality of work you all do, is that you are already addressing most of the issues. In fact, many of you, actually identified the opportunities for the surveyors.
We were commended for many activities and processes.
· Of the 1,700 Quality Criteria/Dimensions applicable to RVHS we met 1,636 or 96.5% - this is fantastic!
· One of our approaches to patient safety, our Passport to Safety, has been identified and will be recommended to Accreditation Canada as a leading practice and national benchmark. Our three senior management team members, who have experience as accreditation surveyors, tell me they have rarely seen organizations where this has happened before. While the report is not approved yet, even a recommendation like this is outstanding!
· Strategic Plan-on-a-Page and everyone’s, including external stakeholders, knowledge of and active implementation of it was cited in the report.
· The Personal Business Commitments process stood out for the surveyors.
· Our use of Lean in our ongoing transformation of patient care quality improvement and hospital services.
· Our Quality and Risk Framework and our commitment to quality, plus staff and patient safety were highlighted as strength.
· Our communications processes and community relationships were also listed as strengths.
· Financial controls and our balanced budget plan impressed the surveyors.
· Pandemic planning and code policies and procedures were also strengths.
· Patient focus in ambulatory care was noted as was our focus on patient flow in emergency.
· Our attention to emerging health needs in paediatrics was noted as a strength.
· Improved turnaround time for reports in diagnostic imaging was cited.
I could go on and on, so please read the presentation by the surveyors themselves.
The presentation is posted on our intranet as a PDF, accessible internally for staff, physicians and volunteers, only.
This significant external validation of your work says more than anything about your daily commitment to our patients, to our hospital, to our community and to our team.
Be proud Rouge Valley. You’ve earned it.