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There was lots going on at GGH this fall (click on pictures to enlarge)
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Santa and Mrs. Claus brought their Christmas cheer to staff at Breakfast With Santa.
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The Clauses took time to chat with Eileen Bain, VP Patient Services and Chief Nursing Executive.
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There was a good turnout for the Patient Safety Fair. Above, Rena Burkholder (left), Infection Control, talks about her display with Merle Seegmiller, Director Ambulatory Care.
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During Facilities Engineering Week, staff were given a chance to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the mechanical spaces. Charlie Schuurman explains the workings of a backup generator to Kristy Meringer of Organizational Development.
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Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation will begin applying to Ontario Hospitals on Jan. 1, 2012. Helping educate staff about it at a Lunch 'n Learn was Jennifer Pranger, our FOI Coordinator (left).
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The Clauses had a second appearance at GGH for the first annual Breakfast With Santa for GGH kids and grandkids. The sold-out event is bound to be repeated next year.
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GGH and Trellis Mental Health and Developmental Services hosted a Mental Health Community Cafe in our auditorium. Sixteen local community agencies shared valuable information about local resources.
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There's no lack of creativity when it came to this year's entries in the pumpkin carving contest. The winner was the "hamburger" entry from the Emergency Department. Click on the picture above to see all the entries.
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A big "thank you!" goes out to the members of this year's United Way committee seen here loading up donated toilet paper. The staff campaign raised $19,116.37! This includes $1,000 in toilet paper and underwear and is a 36% increase from our results last year! |
The Grade six class at Waverley Drive Public School made wonderful owl ornaments for our patients who are in hospital over Christmas.
“Sent with wishes of love, joy and peace this holiday season, and with thanks to GGH staff for gestures of kindness for Guelph residents at Christmas and throughout the year.” |
Helping to promote good hand hygiene to visitors are three life-sized posters of Richard Ernst, President and CEO, offering hand gel.
Board Chair, Peter Ferraro, looks positively height challenged between the two 6'5" Richards. |
For more than 10 years the Guelph Mercury has been delivering Teddy bears to the Hospital to comfort young patients who are here over the holidays. |
Sometimes patient-centred care means going above and beyond
 After seeing some patients come to the hospital in soiled and tattered clothing, staff in the Emergency Department came up with the idea of having an inventory of good, clean, used clothing available for giving out. The GGH “Clothes Closet” was born (click on picture to enlarge).
Located in the 5 East cubby, the clothing in the closet is available to all units. The ED has brought in some items and will manage the inventory on an ongoing basis. From time to time, units will be contacted looking for specific donations such as women’s shoes or T-shirts.
Our Volunteer Association will provide funds for buying new underwear and socks. In addition, knitting volunteers are being sought to make hats and mitts. Any extra items will be donated to the Drop In Centre.
“This is a great example of living our Value of Compassion,” says Eileen Bain, VP Patient Services and Chief Nursing Executive.
Patient Safety Week's winning idea
Quality and safe patient care is the responsibility of all staff at GGH. In celebration of Canadian Patient Safety Week, the Quality & Patient Safety team asked for staff’s input and/ or feedback on initiatives that promote quality patient care and patient safety. And after careful consideration of each submission, Connie Reeves-Bolger’s (below) was chosen as the winner!
 A new initiative started this summer is “glow germ” audits. Glow germ is a liquid that looks clear under normal light but glows brightly under black light. The audit involves smearing this stuff in various locations in a patient’s room before it was cleaned. After cleaning all of the glow germ should have been wiped away. The black light is used to identify any spots that were missed. It’s a great learning opportunity.
When we explain what we’re doing to the patients, our experience has been they are very interested and think it is great. The direct result is that we are ensuring a clean room for them! The staff on the units even show an interest and want to see how it is done as well.
This has been a group effort and a great learning for housekeeping and for staff. One thing we’ve clearly learned from the audits is how difficult it is to clean properly the call bell.
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Introducing our new Director of Financial Services
 Deepani (Dee) Perera, CMA, is our new Director of Financial Services. She is a Certified Management Accountant, has a Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University and is an Associate of the Institute of Bankers. She is also a Gold Medal Winner of the Dale Carnegie Institute for Leadership. In 2010, in recognition of her leadership in business, community service and promotion of the accounting profession, Dee was named a Fellow of the Society of Management Accountants of Canada (FCMA), the highest honour CMA Canada bestows.
Dee currently sits on the Ontario Board of Directors for Certified Management Accountants (CMA) Canada. She is also Advisory Board Member for the Ministry of Health on Reporting and Data Compliance and is the Chair of the Ontario Children’s Treatment Centre Finance Managers Group. Additionally Dee has dedicated her time to sitting on a number of information management groups in healthcare sector.
“I also enjoy dancing and cooking too!” she says.
Dee emigrated to Canada 20 years ago from Sri Lanka and still remembers the challenges she faced as a new immigrant. That is the main driving force behind her passion to support the community and especially new immigrants. She and her husband had been devoting much of their time during last decade to settle new immigrants in Canada.
Welcome Dee!
The First 90 days
Organizational Development has been working on creating a process to help reduce new employee turnover. Recently, it announced the “First 90 Days” program which will officially begin in January.
The program requires Directors to meet with all new employees for a structured, yet informal “check-in” meeting at the 30-day and 90-day mark. Meeting early and regularly with new employees has been shown to be a successful practice for recruitment and retention and will give Directors the opportunity to get to know their new employees
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Members of the November's orientation session |
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Foundation News - The need for new scopes
Recently, our Foundation sent out its seasonal mailing which talks more about the need for $1 million to help replace our aging “scopes” as well as purchase new anatomic pathology lab equipment, which is used to analyze biopsy samples taken during “scope” procedures.
Consider Terry’s story: A few years back, the GGH staff member felt it was time to have a colonoscopy.
“It wasn’t something I wanted to do! But after listening to Dr. Hewak, (a gastroenterologist here) talk about the importance of having a colonoscopy, I decided to do it.”
Being asymptomatic and with no family history of cancer, she was totally taken aback by the outcome – a diagnosis of a villous adenoma, a type of polyp, which, if left untreated could result in cancer.
“While having a ‘scope’ is no walk in the park, the thought is a lot worse than the actual procedure,” says Terry.
Many of us are familiar with scopes – a critical piece of equipment that lets a physician look inside the body in a minimally-invasive way. Each year, more than 7,000 scopes are performed in our surgical suite – colonoscopies, duodenoscopies, gastroscopies and bronchoscopies. Often these scopes are the physicians’ first and most effective tools for detecting cancer and other conditions.
 Currently, performing a “scope” with our aging equipment is like watching a black and white, older model TV, says Dr. Hewak. The image quality is functional but there’s no way of recording what you see to watch it again later. Using a new scope is like watching a high-definition flat screen. And what’s even more exciting is that the scopes come equipped with a “digital capture” feature so that the procedure can be recorded and still pictures taken throughout. Moreover, after the procedure, physicians are able to review what they saw rather than rely on notes.
“We are very excited about replacing our entire suite with these newer, state-of-the-art scopes,” says Dr. Hewak. “I know that one of the keys to battling cancer is prevention as well as early detection and diagnosis. Scopes are one of the most valuable tools we have in this fight.”
Terry feels that the scope and the subsequent removal of the polyp likely saved her life or at least prevented all kinds of potentially invasive treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. It also helped her to better understand what others are going through.
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After seeing some patients come to the hospital in soiled and tattered clothing, staff in the Emergency Department came up with the idea of having an inventory of good, clean, used clothing available for giving out. The GGH “Clothes Closet” was born (click on picture to enlarge).
A new initiative started this summer is “glow germ” audits. Glow germ is a liquid that looks clear under normal light but glows brightly under black light. The audit involves smearing this stuff in various locations in a patient’s room before it was cleaned. After cleaning all of the glow germ should have been wiped away. The black light is used to identify any spots that were missed. It’s a great learning opportunity.
Deepani (Dee) Perera, CMA, is our new Director of Financial Services. She is a Certified Management Accountant, has a Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University and is an Associate of the Institute of Bankers. She is also a Gold Medal Winner of the Dale Carnegie Institute for Leadership. In 2010, in recognition of her leadership in business, community service and promotion of the accounting profession, Dee was named a Fellow of the Society of Management Accountants of Canada (FCMA), the highest honour CMA Canada bestows.
