Communicating with you

We are now in the midst of the influenza season and an important focus at this time of year is protecting our patients, residents and staff from illness.

It’s important to remind you that when influenza is circulating in the community, patients and visitors are required to wear a procedure mask when they are within two metres of patients and residents in our facilities.

We also ask patients and visitors not to enter our buildings if they are experiencing influenza-like symptoms or are feeling unwell.

And, we ask everyone to practice good hand hygiene at all times while in our facilities.

If you are coming to St. Joseph’s Hospital for care, please know that our Prescription Shop now conveniently offers immunizations, including the influenza vaccine. No appointment is necessary. All are welcome to get their flu shot at the Prescription Shop, which is located in our Zone A lobby.

St. Joseph’s is currently developing its next strategic plan to guide us for the next three years.

Over the past several months, we have been gathering the thoughts, ideas and suggestions from staff, physicians, leaders, researchers, key partners, patients, families, volunteers, and members of the public on the priorities and directions for St. Joseph’s through 2021.

This was done in many ways – through one-on-one interviews, focus groups, workshops, and questions people could answer while in our facilities, on our website or through social media, and more. To date, more than 1,600 people have been engaged in our strategic planning process and many thought-provoking discussions have taken place. If you provided your thoughts and ideas, I thank you.

We are now synthesizing what we heard to determine our strategic priorities for the next three years, as well as specific initiatives aligned with those priorities that we will undertake in the first year.

We hope to share the priorities and year-one initiatives with you in the spring.

Improving Care Together

Another area of focus where your feedback is shaping care at St. Joseph’s is our Improving Care Together initiative.

This initiative aims to make a difference in the experience and interaction family caregivers have within our organization and with the broader health care system. It will allow us to become an organization that not only supports caregivers at the direct care level, but incorporates a strong caregiver voice in program and organizational planning.

The first step has been to learn about the experience of family caregivers at St. Joseph’s. To date, we have collected feedback from more than 80 family caregivers and 140 staff members through focus groups and individual interviews.

We are now bringing caregivers and care providers together to review the feedback and determine where we need to focus our improvement efforts.

To learn more about this initiative, and to share your feedback on your experience as a family caregiver, visit our website. LINK for screen: www.sjhc.london.on.ca/yourstjosephs/improving-care-together

The New Year - Looking ahead

As we end 2017 and begin 2018, we can be proud of some significant achievements, and we look forward to new horizons for St. Joseph’s in collaboration with our health care partners.

For example, I welcome, and look forward to working with, Dr. Paul Woods, who began his role as the new President and CEO of London Health Sciences Centre on January 15.

Together, St. Joseph’s and London Health Sciences Centre, along with our community partners, will continue to look for ways to improve the system of care in London and our region.

At St. Joseph’s, we recognize that, to truly fulfill our mission, and contribute to the health of our community, we must partner with many different providers and reach out beyond our facilities to deliver care. 2017 saw us do this in innovative ways.

For example, a collaboration between our Regional Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Treatment and London Police Service is addressing the unique needs of victims of human trafficking.

For our mental health patients, St. Joseph’s has partnered with the Canadian Mental Health Association Middlesex, Ontario Works and the Housing Stability Bank to launch the No Fixed Address project. This initiative aims to break the cycle of homelessness by providing individuals with assistance in finding stable housing and financial supports as they leave the hospital.

For individuals with an acquired brain injury, St. Joseph’s is part of a pilot project with community partners that is providing enhanced support for individuals identified in the correctional system with an acquired brain injury.

Being committed to the patient experience means being committed to the integration of care across all care settings. I am proud of the partnerships St. Joseph’s continues to forge in our community.

As always, I welcome your feedback and ideas about the way St. Joseph's serves you. Please email me at askgillian@sjhc.london.on.ca.

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