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Media Advisory

June 15, 2010

ATTN: NEWS / HEALTH EDITORS

Full Accreditation and a balanced budget - Trillium Health Centre reports stellar news at its Annual General Meeting

Mississauga/West Toronto – Trillium Health Centre’s Board of Directors and Executive Team had plenty of good news for the audience at its Annual General Meeting on June 10. 

Just before the meeting, Accreditation Canada informed Trillium that it had passed its recent survey.  Trillium has been awarded a three-year full accreditation with no conditions and is being recognized for six 'leading practices.'

“Congratulations on your organization’s leadership, staff commitment, and organization-wide quest for improvement! You are demonstrating a commitment to providing quality care and service,” wrote Suzanne Larocque, chair, Accreditation Decision Committee in her letter accompanying the report of the May 16-21 survey.

The Accreditation Canada surveyors echoed those sentiments in their commentary: "Trillium Health Centre can celebrate many successes. This is an excellent organization that is committed to patient safety and to a culture of safety throughout. It has dedicated resources to making the environment safe and appropriate. The quality framework and patient safety improvements are exceptional at Trillium and should be used as an example for other organizations."

"Following a week at Trillium, the survey team presented their preliminary findings," Anne Sado, chair, Trillium Health Centre Board of Directors, told the Annual General meeting. "I am proud to tell you that, when the survey team displayed Accreditation Canada’s motto – The leader for raising the bar in health quality – they said those words apply equally well to Trillium Health Centre. In fact, they repeatedly said we were 'ahead of the curve.' "

Further excellent news at the Annual General Meeting came during the Treasurer’s Report:  Trillium balanced its $450 million budget - despite budgetary constraints and increasing demand for services.

“In fiscal 2009/10, Trillium Health Centre met its budget plan and was able to balance operations, as well as meet its commitment to its working capital recovery plan by generating a budget surplus of $2.1 million,” said Janice Baker, treasurer and chair, Resources Committee, Trillium Health Centre Board of Directors.

"The Accreditation Canada surveyors observed that Trillium has worked miracles in the last two years, generating a slight surplus without cutting front line caregiver positions or key services," said Janet Davidson, O.C., president and CEO, Trillium Health Centre. "They recognized that it’s the people who deliver the care who make all the difference to the budget - and that every person in this organization must be committed to making it successful or we wouldn’t be seeing that kind of financial picture."

The six leading practices for which Accreditation Canada commended Trillium as being exemplary organizational practices that demonstrate high quality leadership and service delivery are: 

  1. Transfer of Accountability (safe patient hand off at nursing shift change at bedside)
  2. Patient Education in Birthing Suite (Baby and You educational videos for new moms)
  3. Code STEMI/PPCI  
  4. Order Sets (standardized orders sets / clinical protocols)
  5. Managing Alternate Level of Care (ALC) in partnership with the CCAC and LHIN
  6. Continuum of Spine Care (from assessment through treatment and rehabilitation)

"This full accreditation is further validation that everyone at Trillium is unwavering in their commitment to provide high quality care to our patients and to create a good quality working life to the staff, physicians and volunteers who provide and support that care," said Davidson. "Congratulations to the teams who designed and implemented our leading practices. They are role models for health care providers across the nation to emulate."

A copy of Trillium’s 2009-10 Annual Report is attached.

Background - Notes on Trillium’s Six Leading Practices

For more information on Trillium’s six leading practices, as cited by Accreditation Canada, please see the following links:

1.  Transfer of Accountability  

Trillium won a “Health Care Safety Award” from the Canadian College of Health Service Executives in 2009 for our safe patient hand off at nursing shift change process for Transfer of Accountability at bedside. For more information, see: www.trilliumhealthcentre.org/newsroom/news_releases/June02_2009.html

2.  Patient Education in Birthing Suite

Baby and You is an innovative series of consumer-friendly online videos (with text transcripts) available on Trillium’s website to address common questions new moms have as they return home with their newborns. To see the videos, go to:  www.trilliumhealthcentre.org/programs_services/womens_childrens_services/
womensHealth/birthing_services/caring_for_baby_and_you/baby_and_you.html

3.  STEMI/PPCI 

STEMI/PPCI refers to the ‘Code STEMI’ program, in partnership with Halton, Peel and Toronto Emergency Medical Services and supported by the Mississauga Halton LHIN, in which paramedics diagnose and transport patients suffering a specific type of heart attack (ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction or STEMI) directly to the Cardiac Catheterization lab at Trillium 24/7 or emergency angioplasty (or Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention - PPCI).  For more information, see: www.trilliumhealthcentre.org/newsroom/news_releases/January22_2010.html and www.trilliumhealthcentre.org/newsroom/news_releases/February18_2009.html.

4.  Order Sets

Trillium has been a leader in the development and implementation of physician order sets and clinical protocols for several years. See the announcement of our membership in the Open Source Orders Sets Network from 2009:  www.trilliumhealthcentre.org/newsroom/news_releases/March05_2009.html.
Trillium intensivist Dr. Chris O’Connor won a COACH ‘Emerging Leader in Health Informatics Award’ in 2007 to recognize his leadership of projects like Trillium’s Order Set Transformation, see: www.trilliumhealthcentre.org/newsroom/news_releases/November19_2007.html.

5.  Managing Alternate Level of Care (ALC) in partnership with the CCAC and LHIN. 

Trillium’s work to improve the process for helping our ALC patients get the most appropriate care in the right place as quickly as possible was recently featured as a ‘success story’ in the Ontario Health Quality Council’s annual report, for more information, see: www.trilliumhealthcentre.org/newsroom/news_releases/June04_2010.html


6.  Continuum of Spine Care 

Trillium Health Centre’s Spine Institute received the 3M HealthCare Quality Team Award for its innovative approach to the spine care continuum at National Healthcare Leadership Conference in St. John's in 2009. For more information, see: www.trilliumhealthcentre.org/newsroom/news_releases/June03_2009.html

About Accreditation Canada

Accreditation Canada is a not-for-profit, independent organization accredited by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua). Accreditation Canada provides national and international health care organizations with an external peer review process to assess and improve the services they provide to their patients and clients based on standards of excellence. Accreditation Canada's programs and guidance have helped organizations promote quality health care for over 50 years.

For more information, visit www.accreditation.ca

About Trillium Health Centre

Trillium Health Centre is one of Canada’s largest academically-affiliated tertiary care hospitals with highly-specialized regional programs in advanced cardiac, vascular, stroke, neurosciences, orthopaedic, and sexual assault/domestic violence services. Housing a model ambulatory care centre and the largest free standing day surgery centre in North America, Trillium serves over one million residents in Peel and West Toronto and from other communities across Ontario. Last year Trillium’s doctors, staff and volunteers cared for more than 700,000 patients at the Mississauga (100 Queensway W.) and West Toronto (150 Sherway Dr.) locations. With the continued support of the Trillium Health Centre Foundation, the hospital’s fundraising arm, the two-site facility is attracting international attention for its innovative approach to providing safe, high quality health care services and has received numerous national awards for quality and innovation.

For more information, go to www.trilliumhealthcentre.org.

For a copy of Trillium’s 2009/10 Annual Report, go to www.trilliumhealthcentre.org/publications/downloads/AnnualReport0910.pdf.

Media Contact:

Larry Roberts
Media Relations Consultant
Trillium Health Centre
Office: 905-848-7580 ext. 3832
Mobile: 416-358-7201
lroberts@thc.on.ca