Wendy Lawrence announced as Chief Risk, Legal and Privacy Officer
Wendy Lawrence will be joining St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton as Chief Risk, Legal & Privacy Officer (CRLPO) effective September 7, 2021.
Wendy has more than 10 years of experience working as legal counsel for public hospitals in Ontario and before that, was counsel at the Ministry of the Attorney General. She is currently Director of Compliance, Privacy & Risk Management at The Hospital for Sick Children, where she leads the hospital’s privacy and risk management teams, and oversees the hospital’s insurance, enterprise risk management and compliance programs.
Through her career, Wendy has developed expertise in the laws governing hospitals and broader public sector organizations and has played a leadership role in evolving compliance programs in the hospital sector. She is recognized as a legal innovator and was awarded with a Canadian Lawyer Inhouse “Innovation Award” in 2019 for leading the development of a common compliance system and framework for the Toronto Academic hospitals.
St. Joe’s is operating in an increasingly complex environment with the implementation of Ontario Health Teams, connecting mission critical digital health solutions with our system partners and patients, and responding to the ongoing health crisis of COVID-19. These realities present significant risk, compliance, insurance, and privacy issues that must be well managed for St. Joe’s to continue to innovate and play a leadership role in the system. As CRLPO, Wendy will lead and build on the strong foundation of services provided by our recently integrated risk, insurance, and privacy teams. Key focus areas will include: implementing best practice healthcare risk management programs offered by our new insurer, HIROC; enhancing St. Joe’s corporate compliance program, including introduction of risk-based internal audit; restructuring our legal services delivery model; and evolving our strong privacy and access to information program.
Wendy holds a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) degree from Queen’s University and a Law Degree from the University of Windsor. She has completed the Healthcare Leadership Institute at the Rotman School of Management and holds a Certificate in Health Law from Osgoode Hall Law School.
Wendy will begin her new role at St. Joe’s on September 7, reporting to John Aldis, Senior Vice President, Finance and Corporate Services.
Much appreciation to Brian Guest, St. Joseph’s Health System Senior Vice President and Interim Executive Lead, Risk, Legal and Privacy, and Jessica Fry, Manager of Risk, Legal and Corporate Affairs, and Interim Manager of Privacy, for taking on these additional leadership roles during St. Joe’s search for a CRLPO. Their leadership and continued commitment to living the St. Joe’s mission has been invaluable.