CEO's Year in Review 2016–2017

Highlights and awards 2016–2017

North York General Hospital (NYGH) celebrates another year of providing exceptional health care to our diverse communities. 

Our review includes a message from Dr. Tim Rutledge, NYGH President and CEO, and Murray J. Perelman, Chair, Board of Governors. as well as highlights and awards showcasing many of our organizational accomplishments and media mentions. 

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Some of our highlights include:

NYGH receives HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence. North York General was the first acute care hospital in Canada to be presented with the HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence. Only about 50 hospitals around the world are recipients of this award by the Health Information Management Systems Society, known as HIMSS. The hospital was awarded this distinction for its eCare initiative, a multi-year, hospital-wide health care information technology (IT) transformation strategy. Since implementing eCare, an estimated 7,700 unintentional adverse drug events and 11,000 potential medication errors have been prevented at North York General. NYGH staff, physicians and volunteers were joined by partners and stakeholders along with special guests, the Honourable Dr. Eric Hoskins, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, the Honourable Michael Coteau, MPP for Don Valley East, and Minister of Children and Youth Services, as well as Minister Responsible for Anti-Racism, and the Honourable David Zimmer, MPP for Willowdale, and Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. 

NYGH top performing hospital for employee engagement. National Research Corporation Canada shared that North York General was a top performer among all participating Ontario hospitals for employee engagement. Thirty participating hospitals shared their employee data collected between 2014–2016. From this information, the hospital scored top marks in overall engagement, health and safety, patient care and trust in the organization. The report highlighted that our physician engagement score increased from 89.4% to 91.1%.

Top cancer surgery wait times performer three years running. For the third year in a row, Cancer Care Ontario presented North York General with a certificate for being the Top Performing Hospital in the province for 2015–2016 in Cancer Surgery Wait Times — Time from Decision to Treat to Treatment. A number of measures have been implemented and sustained to decrease wait times for all cancer surgeries, resulting in North York General meeting or exceeding provincial and Central Local Health Integration Network targets for the past five years. 

Branson Ambulatory Care Centre transition begins. NYGH began to transition services from the Branson Ambulatory Care Centre in anticipation of its lease expiration in 2019. President and CEO Tim Rutledge emphasized the compelling rationale for the transition and that the best interests of patients and families have been and will be foremost in decision-making. A message to the community stressed the hospital has spent months, if not years, reviewing the care needs of the Branson community. Following the announcement, North York General hosted a telephone town hall for the Branson community regarding the future of Branson Ambulatory Care Centre. Over 20,000 randomly selected households within the community were contacted and more than 3,500 attendees participated in a productive dialogue.

This article appeared in the July-August 2017 issue of The Pulse.

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