Stevenson recognized by Health Ministry for reaching high standards for Emergency Care
The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care is recognizing the achievements at Stevenson Memorial Hospital. As a result of the achievements, staff is being asked to share improvement strategies, so that hospitals across the province can learn from the success.
Assistant Deputy Health Minister Nancy Naylor has commended the “outstanding” performance over the past several months in the Emergency Department, which is consistently ranked 2nd for shortest wait times out of 74 high volume hospitals across the province.
Stevenson’s President and CEO Jody Levac and Vice President/Chief Nursing Officer Shannon Landry shared the exciting news with hospital physicians and staff at a celebration barbecue last week.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be bringing accolades from the Province to our staff, physicians and volunteers today. I can assure you that this doesn’t happen often, and in this case it is certainly well deserved,” Levac said.
“It is the commitment and dedication of staff that results in success,” Landry added. “Embracing teamwork and collaboration with co-workers in all areas of the hospital helps to create a positive patient experience and reduce wait times.”
A letter from Naylor arrived at a time when ER visits are on track to set an annual record at Stevenson, with 13,000 visits during the first four months of 2014. If the pace continues, over 34,000 people will visit the ED this year and the facility was built 50 years ago to accommodate 7,000 annually.
Stevenson has shown the most improvement for Emergency Department Length of Stay within the medium volume community hospital group in 2013 – 1.3 hours below the hospital group average of six hours.
“Thank you for your commitment to reducing provincial wait times and improving emergency care for the people of Ontario,” Naylor noted, suggesting the strategies that contributed to this achievement “can be leveraged to improve ED performance at other hospitals across the province.”
Levac congratulated staff from all areas of the hospital for contributing to the success of the Emergency Department.
"It's really about teamwork and we have a very dedicated and skilled team here," he said. "We have been able to climb to 2nd in the province for wait time in the Emergency Department because we have made improvements to patient flow in all areas. It is a tremendous achievement and I'm very proud of the team."
