Geraldton District Hospital, Building

Annual General Meeting of the Corporation - 2017

June 28, 2017

 

 

Annual General Meeting of the Corporation

 

 

The Annual General Meeting of the Geraldton District Hospital Corporation was held at the Northern Horizon Health Centre, in Geraldton, on Wednesday, June 28, 2017.

 

Reports were received from Jamie McPherson, Chair, Lucy Bonanno, CEO, Dr. Laine, Chief of Medical Staff, Myrna Letourneau, Auxiliary President and Kathryn Legault, Treasurer. Some highlights of the reports included:

 

  • Master Plan: The Hospital continues to work with the North West Local Health Integration Network and Ministry of Health Capital Investment Branch to relocate the Emergency Department from the lower level to the upper level next to the Acute Care Unit. The process is lengthy and we will continue to work with the Ministry to complete the process. Stage 2 was submitted and we await a response.

 

  • Physician Recruitment: Recruitment of physicians continues to be a major challenge for the hospital. We are working closely with HealthForce Ontario to assist us.

 

  • Operating Budget: The Hospital ended the fiscal year with a surplus of $262,494. We received an increase of 2%, which we are grateful for as we strive with building upkeep, daily maintenance and operations, along with rising costs, such as food products and hydro.

 

  • Capital Budget: This fiscal year the Hospital invested in new emergency call bells, new ceiling lifts, a multipurpose hygiene chair, MDRD instrument replacement, upgraded voice-mail server, transfusion medicine system, fluid-dose liquid packing system, installation of new dryer tumblers for laundry, replacement of some of our IT equipment that was required, Nu step T4 bike and elliptical trainer for our rehab department, a new swipe care access site for safety and other items that were required.

 

  • Auxiliary: The Hospital was very grateful to the Auxiliary for their generous donation of gifts for the patients and residents of LTC, continued fundraising events and over 4,000 hours of volunteer hours. We are so grateful to all of our volunteers for their time and dedication to the hospital to better care for our community.

 

  • Strategic Plan 2014-18: We are heading into our fourth year of the strategic plan and the hospital has completed 45 of 49 objectives. The remaining 4 have all been started and are well on their way; however, they are goals that are ‘ongoing’. Meaning, these will continue to be built upon, such as, development of health hubs, partnership building and development of new programs such as Health Links. Again, these have all been started but will remain ongoing even as we enter into a new strategic plan in the new fiscal year.

 

 

 

  • Some final statistics for Fiscal 2016-17:

 

  • # of Emergency Department visits: 8,621
  • # of Nakina Clinic visits: 2,203
  • # of hospital admissions: 334
  • Total air transfers: 253

 

We continue to have one of the lowest infection rates in our region, which should be celebrated and shows the hard work of our staff within the facility across all departments. We had 334 admissions, with an average length of stay in the emergency department of 2.3 hours. This is an overall average and excellent time in comparison to the provincial average of 4.6 hours.

 

As well, it shows the importance of working with partners such as Ornge, the provincial air ambulance that assists with transferring the most critically ill to Thunder Bay Regional. As well, the need for our Nakina Clinic, to help keep clients close to home for their primary care needs, as opposed to driving into Geraldton.

 

It must be recognized that despite our rurality, we are a very busy hospital and one where all staff, volunteers and physicians take pride in their work in serving the community of Greenstone.

 

 

Chico Tschajka was reappointed as a Director representing Industry and Myrna Letourneau representing the Auxiliary.

 

The Board is now comprised of the following members:

 

Jamie McPherson, Chairman                                         Ralph Humphreys

Mark Wright, Vice Chairman                                           Willy Anton

Kathryn Legault, Treasurer                                              Sherri Taylor

Myrna Letourneau, Hospital Auxiliary                              Doreen Boulanger

Chico Tschajka, Industry Representative                        Marlo Sobush

 

Dr. Laine, Chief of Staff *

Dr. Zufelt, Co-Chief of Staff & President of Medical Staff *

Lucy Bonanno, Chief Executive Officer*

Laurie Heerema, Chief Nursing Officer *

Sylvie Duranceau, Chief Clinical Officer*

(* non-voting members)

 

 

Si vous désirez recevoir ce communiqué en français, veillez appeler le 854-1862 x102