St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) is dedicated to providing the best quality of care to our patients in an environment that promotes openness, transparency, accountability and trust.

In this section of our website you will find our:

• Executive compensation contracts and expenses
• Procurement documents
• Quality and safety performance indicators
• St. Joe's annual Quality Improvement Plan
• St. Joe's Hospital Service Accountability Agreements and much more. 

You will also learn about the process for filing a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Ontario's hospitals operate in one of the most rigorous accountability and transparency environments in Canada. Virtually every aspect of hospitals’ performance is regularly subject to external, independent scrutiny. Hospitals have initiated or played a key role in shaping most of their stringent accountability measures. Some of these measures include:

• Participating in reviews by the Auditor General of Ontario
• Accreditation by Accreditation Canada
• Posting patient quality and safety performance indicators on our website
• Posting Hospital Service Accountability Agreements
• Public Reporting of Wait Times through the Ontario Wait Time’s Strategy
• Participating in Public Sector Salary Disclosure
• Adhering to legislation including the Excellent Care for All Act and Broader Public Sector Accountability Act

The Excellent Care for All Act

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton has a proud history of being open, transparent, and accountable to our patients, community, and funders. The Excellent Care for All Act, 2010 was introduced by the Government of Ontario to put patients first, while improving the quality and value of the patient experience through the use of evidence-based care. St. Joseph’s is fully compliant with this legislation, which mandates that hospitals must:

• Have quality committees that report to the Board
• Develop and implement annual quality improvement plans
  • Quality Improvement Plan
• Tie executive compensation to targets set out in the annual quality improvement plan
• Conduct patient/client/caregiver surveys to assess satisfaction with services
• Conduct staff surveys to assess satisfaction with employment experience and views about the quality of care the organization provides
• Publish a Declaration of Values that is developed with public consultation
• Ensure an appropriate patient-relations process is in place to address patient experience issues

The Broader Public Sector Accountability Act

As stewards of the public trust, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton embraces the accountabilities outlined in the Broader Public Sector Accountability Act. This act sets out rules and accountabilities for hospitals, Local Health Integration Networks and other public sector organizations. As part of the BPSAA, all hospitals in Ontario are required to implement Ministry of Finance Procurement Directives and Expense Directives. They are also required to:

• Prepare compliance attestations
• Report on the use of consultants
• Publicly post executive expense claim information

You can find all of the above-mentioned items in the Corporate Accountability section and Executive Expenses sections of our website.