Mount Saint Joseph Hospital was hopping with engagement activities on Wednesday, November 28!

The morning and afternoon saw open forum sessions, where lead facilitators Caitlin Grisack, coordinator, Psychological Health & Safety, and Jody Sydor-Jones, corporate director, Mission, Reconciliation & Volunteer Resources, connected with more than 40 MSJ staff – thank you so much to everyone who make the time to attend!

In addition, the ED staff at MSJ welcomed an early morning pop-up session (AKA: questions and candy) led by Winston MacKenzie, manager, Decision Support, and Elizabeth, corporate director, Care Delivery Integration & Transformation, where meaningful conversations were had around quality, safety, and compassion. Big thanks to all staff and medical staff who started your morning with us!

Here are just a few* of the thoughts that were heard around the tables on the big themes that will guide our organization’s work over the next 7 years:

  • Little things create the big things. It matters how you say good morning.
  • How do we make caring so palpable that you can almost chew on it upon entry to any of our sites?
  • We want everyone to understand and feel that we embrace a culture of inclusiveness. If I was new to this city, I would choose a hospital that catered to my language.
  • There needs to be more flexibility, especially for those with aging parents — when you know things are taken care of at home, you can focus at work.
  • How we treat each other, how we treat our patients, intentionally weeding out the things that take us off of our vision – this is what will keep us unique.
  • We need to look at how we can create smoother transitions into acute care, if that is where someone needs to be cared for, and if they’re better cared for at home, we need to support that transition better, too. It only takes a little bit of extra time to make a good transition happen.
  • What about a seniors’ rapid access clinic with a dedicated discharge team that could be access without our seniors having to come to ED?
  • As we strive for innovation, we need to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t — we’re good at introducing new things but are they benefiting us in the way that we think they are, or at all?
  • What do we to do to keep ourselves caring and empathetic as the volumes and complexity continues to build?
  • If we want to be world-class, we can’t just stay focused on what happening here – exceptional things are happening in the world. We need to expand and see what’s working elsewhere.
  • We need to get better at translating knowledge – we’re doing a lot of fantastic research and have access to very current best practice. We need to get good at pulling that into our practice. What about creating a role for champions and respected leaders who can get people excited about new research, and support staff to really embrace best practice and mobilize it across the organization?

* Please note: this is a high-level summary; all sentiments discussed were fully captured by lead and table facilitators!

This pop-up was part of a series of engagement activities happening across PHC where employees, patients, residents, family members, clinicians, researchers and volunteers are invited to weigh in on the creation of a new 7-year strategic plan (2019-2026) for the organization.

Have an idea you want heard? Head to Bloom to offer up your feedback and have your name entered to win some really great prizes (check out the list of what’s up for grabs!).

See photos from the morning and afternoon sessions:

MSJ Staff meeting
MSJ Staff meeting
MSJ Staff meeting
MSJ Staff meeting
MSJ Staff meeting