Thank you from the Joint Boards of Governors: Grateful, humbled and proud of our St. Joe’s team
It has been a year of astounding accomplishments for St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. One year ago, no one could have imagined that St. Joe’s staff and physicians would be called upon to achieve what they’ve done working in the eye of a pandemic.
As members of the volunteer St. Joe’s Joint Boards of Governors, our role is to monitor organizational performance and provide guidance in areas of mission, vision and values here in our Hamilton community.
What we have witnessed in our role at St. Joe’s through this past year is teams managing an accelerated version of the performance they have always done. The strength, ingenuity, nimbleness, along with courage, care and compassion through this past year of COVID-19, reflects the qualities they bring to work at St. Joe’s every day. Teams rose to this challenge in a manner that shows a healthcare community that lives its mission, vision and values. We know that this work, in these times, also came with hardship and sacrifice by many.
To mark the one-year point of the COVID-19 pandemic, we respectfully offer our thanks, and our thoughts on what stands out to us among the many accomplishments that carry forward the mission of St. Joe’s:
Rapid action on community safety:
- Assessment Centres - Teams at St. Joe’s played a pivotal role in launching COVID-19 testing and assessment centres across Hamilton.
- COVID testing - Our Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program, working as a team with Hamilton Health Sciences, has gone from 200 to more than 2,000 tests daily, turning them around in 24 hours or less. They now have capacity to do up to 4,000 tests/day.
Innovation:
- Clinic on wheels – When it became difficult for patients to come in for appointments, a new clinic on wheels was created quickly to provide patients with schizophrenia regular bloodwork and medical injections to maintain their optimal mental health.
- Virtual care visits – The launch of Emergency Department and Urgent Care virtual care provided a way for community members to seek care without coming into the hospital; Many outpatient clinics rapidly adjusted to virtual care when the first wave prevented patients from meeting in person.
- Virtual training –Through cutting-edge virtual reality technology that simulates elbow, knee, and hip replacements, orthopaedic surgeons in training could continue their training.
Adjusting work to serve our patients:
- Increasing surgeries - When the cancellation of elective surgeries in the first wave created a backlog, St. Joe’s teams worked together to create innovative solutions to boost the number of surgeries, ramping up to 109%, to care for the needs of our patients.
- Rapid adjustment of beds to COVID and non-COVID needs - The creation of a COVID unit, additional ICU beds, and rapid adjustment of bed use across the hospital is part of continual adjustments to meet the needs of the patient population in current time.
- Satellite Health Facility - Multiple-discipline teams developed the Satellite Health Facility with Hamilton Health Sciences to care for patients in a safe environment and create space in hospitals.
Serving our families
- Virtual visits - When the first wave of COVID-19 restricted visitors to help curb the spread of the virus, new ways were created to keep families and patients connected, including virtual visits and window visits.
- Keeping caregivers - Recognizing the essential part families and caregivers have in patient care, St. Joe’s teams have worked to ensure essential caregivers remain in hospital in a safe manner.
- Dedicated, essential service - The continuing compassionate care of patients, COVID and non-COVID, and the support work to make that happen continues every day.
Creating hope for the future
- Vaccine clinics - St. Joe’s has stepped up yet again with fast action to create a vaccine clinic at our West 5thclinic to serve our community and help us move toward a brighter, healthier future.
There is so much more.
We recognize this has been a difficult road. We know you are fatigued and restless for normal. We have faith that time will come.
We offer our most sincere thanks to every one of you, our humble gratitude for what you have accomplished, and extreme pride in your steadfast movement forward.
THE VOICES OF OUR TEAM – REFLECTIONS ON COURAGE, CARE AND COMPASSION AMIDST COVID-19:
All of this week, St. Joe’s will be focusing on the voices of our staff, physicians, researchers and learners as we reflect on the one-year mark of COVID-19.