Hospital earns high marks in Accreditation report
by Marcello Bernardo
The Hospital was awarded an Accreditation with Commendation under the Qmentum accreditation program, with an impressive 98.4% compliance rating. Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (the Hospital) has been ranked among the best. Accreditation Canada, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to engaging patients, policy-makers and the public to improve the safety and quality of health and social services, has awarded the Hospital an “A+”.
Four Accreditation Canada surveyors visited the Hospital from May 14-18, 2018 to conduct an on-site assessment of the Hospital’s leadership, governance, clinical programs and services against a rigorous set of quality and safety standards and required organizational practices.
“It is no surprise that our extremely dedicated and engaged staff were able to impress the surveyors despite our ongoing challenges with over capacity”, said Jean Bartkowiak, President and CEO of the Hospital and CEO of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute. “The efforts that our staff put forward on a daily basis are truly remarkable. In fact, the surveyors made special mention of how they observed our compassionate and caring staff and of that, I am truly proud.”
The Accreditation process involves all members of the organization, from the Board of Directors and leadership to frontline staff as well as members of the community including patients and families and community partners.
After the results were tabulated, the Hospital was awarded an Accreditation with Commendation under the Qmentum accreditation program, with an impressive 98.4% compliance rating. This is an increase from the 2014 survey when the Hospital scored 96% compliant with 600 less criteria to rate.
Among the many high performing areas of the Hospital, the surveyors took special note of the major achievements that have been made with the Strategic Plan 2020, our ongoing leadership in Patient and Family Centred Care, our outstanding telemedicine program, our transparency in communications with the community, our emergency response and mock code practice, and our high functioning Board of Directors.
“Our highly engaged Board is skills-based and strives to achieve diversity among its membership,” said Matt Simeoni, Chair of the Hospital’s Board of Directors. “Quality and patient safety is at the forefront of the Board’s decisions and a sound ethical framework to guide all major decisions. We collaborate closely with the leadership team to hold them accountable to our Mission, Vision, Values and Strategic Directions.”
More than 1,000 health and social service organizations and 7,000 sites in Canada and around the world have been accredited by Accreditation Canada’s programs and services, leading to safer, quality health care for those who matter most: patients and their families.
Accreditation is an ongoing process of assessing health and social services organizations against standards of excellence to identify what is being done well and what needs to be improved. It allows organizations to understand how to make better use of their resources, increase efficiency, enhance quality and safety, and reduce risk. Accreditation provides health care and service organizations an independent, third-party assessment of their organization using standards built upon best practices used and validated by similar organizations around the world.
