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News Release
Trillium Showing Improvement On Latest Hospital Report
Card
MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, January 9, 2003: The latest
Hospital Report Card for Acute Care, released today by the
Ontario Hospital Association and the Government of Ontario,
included some good news for Trillium Health Centre and those
who use the hospital’s services.
According to the Report’s latest results, Trillium
Health Centre scored at or above the provincial average in
80% of the 35 indicators used to measure a hospital’s
performance compared with 72% during the 2001 Report.
“We’re buoyed by the latest results to come
out in Hospital Report 2002 – Acute Care,” says
Wendy Nelson, Senior Vice President and Chief of Operations,
Trillium Health Centre. “It’s a strong endorsement
that the quality improvement initiatives we’ve been
implementing over the past couple of years have been making
a difference in the service we provide to our patients.”
As a regional centre for both Stroke and Cardiac Services,
the hospital was particularly pleased to see the above average
ratings it received in the area of Patient Care, particularly
with respect to access to coronary angiography, AMI readmissions
(heart attack), and stroke length of stay.
“We have taken the time to develop these areas with
specialized expertise and equipment, and we’re delighted
to see the patient care statistics reflecting the clinical
excellence in these two areas,” notes Nelson.
Nelson is quick to point out that while the hospital is
pleased with the results overall, it recognizes that there
is still a lot of work to be done in the area of patient
satisfaction, where the hospital made improvements, but continues
to be at or below the provincial average. “Inpatient
admissions to our medical units have increased by 34% over
the past year leading to extensive waits in the Emergency,” notes
Nelson, “and our occupancy rate is high at 100%. There’s
no question our patients are feeling the impact of that,
particularly in the Emergency department as they await admission
to a patient unit, so we need to be particularly mindful
of what they’re experiencing, and that’s overcrowding.”
Complementing earlier quality improvement initiatives, the
hospital has implemented a number of new approaches to enhancing
the patient care experience:
- Initiated a number of ‘best
practice’ projects
designed to support staff in finding ways to improve care
and services. Projects in 2002 included fractured hips,
stroke, falls prevention and patient flow.
- Provided 77 bursaries to full and part time Trillium staff
for professional development;
- Introduced filmless imaging in Emergency and Critical Care
areas leading to faster turnaround times for consults and
results;
- Staff Education - 1,000 staff attended a Performance
Excellence conference in the spring, which featured a line-up
of exceptional
speakers addressing patient satisfaction, building a healthy
work environment and coping with stress; 1,000 staff attended
a ‘Back To School’ conference in the Fall;
- Initiated a ‘values-based’ approach clinical
practice that is grounded in the beliefs and values people
have about what is important to them in their day-to-day
work and how this impacts the relationships people have
with those they work with and with the patients and families
they
serve;
- Established a Nursing Staffing Office to respond to the
need for more efficient utilization and scheduling of nursing
staff – the staffing office offers a pool of highly
experienced and skilled nurses with the capacity to work
on different nursing units at both hospital sites;
- Introduced a ‘Falls Prevention’ program promoting
safe mobility for patients;
- Enhanced our ‘quality’ dashboard – an
electronic display of key indicators that Trillium uses
to regularly
monitor quality indicators for clinical/service and process/operational
outcomes (the hospital won an international award from
the Medical Users Software Exchange this year for its innovative
dashboard)
"
We recognize that there are no quick fixes for the fast pace,
staffing and facility challenges,” says Nelson. “We
know change takes time. If we’re going to improve
our patient satisfaction scores, we have to be innovative
in
our thinking and aggressive in our actions, and we believe
Trillium is on the right track in this regard.”
- 30 -
Contact: Lynn Woods
Public Relations
905-848-7538
Media Contacts
For all media enquiries, please call Public Relations at 905-848-7580 ext. 3832.
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