Healthy Together 2020

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) is embarking on the development of its new Strategic Plan. Engagement with dedicated community members like you built our last strategic plan, one that resulted in extraordinary advances in healthcare in our region.

Your input is vital to the development of our Strategic Plan 2020 – a blueprint that will guide activities and decision-making at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre for the next 5 years. Along with representatives from health professionals, health managers, policy makers, academic institutions, we need to hear from you – community members – about how we can deliver the best care for our patients.

We remain committed to working with our 5 Partners in Health, including community members, our Board, academic leaders, internal staff, managers, physicians, and policy makers to gather input and help shape a new Strategic Plan together.

The Strategic Plan 2020 will drive patient care at TBRHSC over the course of the next five years. It will touch the lives of thousands of patients and families.

The TBRHSC Board of Directors have identified five key directions: Aboriginal Health; Comprehensive Clinical Care; Quality Patient Experience; Acute Mental Healthcare; and Aging Population.

The outgoing 2015 Strategic Plan has been a success, with nearly 90 percent of its initiatives completed.

“Most strategic plans do not accomplish more than 20-30 percent of their goals, so what we’ve been able to do in the last four years is quite exceptional,” says Susan Fraser, Chair, TBRHSC Board of Directors. “A major reason for this success is the dedication and hard work of our staff, volunteers, patient family advisors and community healthcare partners.”

Starting in January, TBRHSC will be engaging with hundreds of people representing five partners in health (which is based on Dr. Charles Boelen’s model of engagement): health professionals, health managers, policy makers, academic institutions and communities. These groups will meet independently, as well as together, to agree on what is most important for everyone regarding healthcare. This collaboration helps TBRHSC to determine how it can deliver the best care for patients and families.

“Engagement is a process of collaboration and decision making — not simply consultation, surveys and polls. It is giving the community a voice in the decisions that affect them and enables transparency and accountability,” says Andrée Robichaud, President & CEO, TBRHSC and Acting CEO, Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute. “So with our overall direction established by the Board, we’re now prepared to go out to the community and its diverse components to do our engagement and develop the meat of the plan – the goals we wish to achieve.”

Members of the community who are interested in learning more about the upcoming engagement sessions are encouraged to contact TBRHSC at 807-684-6010 or lindseyl@tbh.net

In addition to the in-person engagement sessions, patients and families across Northwestern Ontario will be able to contribute their ideas by completing an online survey here.