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2024 Quality Huddle Excellence Awards

by Raiili Pellizzari
Quality Huddle Awards
(Back row, L-R): Dr. Rhonda Crocker Ellacott, President and CEO, TBRHSC and CEO Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute and Jennifer Wintermans, Vice President, Clinical Services, Quality and Corporate Affairs. (Front row, L-R): Amanda Gerow, Performance Improvement Consultant; Terry Fode, Patient Safety Improvement Specialist; Kristin Shields, Director, Quality and Risk Management; Tram Dao, Manager, Quality and Risk Management; Saravana Priyan G.L., Quality Improvement Lead.

Implemented in January 2023 by the Quality and Risk Management team at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC), Quality Huddles are departmental, leader and staff-led touch-points that provide a consistent platform for sharing innovative ideas related to safety and quality trends. What started with just seven clinical departments, has since expanded to over 40 departments (including non-clinical and outpatient areas) at TBRHSC; with further plans for expansion underway. This has been a significant milestone with over 1,400 huddles held, over 11,000 staff in attendance, over 1,700 change ideas generated, and over 1,000 change ideas implemented.

Thank you to everyone who attended the inaugural Quality Huddle Excellence Awards on October 17. More than 100 staff members from over 30 departments came together to celebrate the various quality improvement initiatives that have made a significant impact on Safety, Staff Experience, Team Work and Collaboration, Workflow Improvement, and Patient and Family Centred Care.

A special congratulations goes out to all of the award winners (below) who came forward to share their valuable change ideas. Each presentation highlighted innovative initiatives from these departments who implemented Quality Huddles in the year 2023.

  • NICU: New sharps containers (Presenter: Ursula Cote)
  • Cancer Centre: Keeping chemo doors unlocked (Presenter: Lori Hygaard)
  • ICU: End-of-life tokens of love (Presenters: Edie Hart and Mike Heerema)
  • MDRD: Third neuro instrument set (Presenter: Kelli-Lynn Stevenson)
  • 1A Medicine/Oncology: Increased accessibility to interprofessional team (Presenter: Sam Ward)
  • 1B Paediatrics: Paediatric-specific pantry items (Presenter: Amy Halvorsen)
  • 1C Maternal/Newborn: Combined teaching record & PODS (Presenters: Kessa Iddison and Evie Aitken)
  • Admitting: Shared screen bed management system (Presenter: Nancy Saxberg)
  • PACU: Adding bay numbers to x-ray orders (Presenter: Lesley Lamers)
  • Northwest Regional Renal Team: Revamping transplant work-ups (Presenter: Allyson Hoard-Mann)
  • 3C Surgery/Neuro: Relocation of Omnicell Unit (Presenter: Shelley Morand)

Congratulations to the award winners, and we look forward to continued staff involvement in the Quality Huddles, working on actively shaping our future, driving positive change and enhancing patient outcomes.

For more information on TBRHSC’s Staff Experience priority, watch this video and read our Strategic Plan 2026 online.