Health Sciences North (HSN), Northern Ontario's largest hospital, has wrapped up the fiscal year with money in the bank. There was $338,000 in excess revenue over expenses for the fiscal year 2019-2020. It was one of the highlights of the HSN annual general meeting held Wednesday.
This is the second year in a row that the fiscal year has ended in a balanced position, said HSN president and CEO Dominic Giroux.
“We sustained a balanced budget, while facing increased overcrowding, opening two overflow units in the North Tower and the South Tower of the Ramsey Lake Health Centre during flu season and absorbing $1.5 million in costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic for the month of March alone”, Giroux said at the first ever virtual annual meeting held through a video conferencing application.
Earlier this year, the Ontario Hospital Association revealed that HSN had shared a case study on the launch of its COVID-19 Assessment Centre. The association said the centre was identified as a gold standard at the provincial command table.
As he reviewed events of the past 12 months, Giroux remarked how the pandemic was certainly not something people were thinking about this time last year.
"Who would have thought a year ago that we would be fighting a new infectious disease that already affected about nine million people and killed close to half a million people worldwide, including 12 here in Northern Ontario and two in our public health unit area?" he said.
Giroux also reported that as the virus was spreading in other parts of the world, HSN began preparing back in January for COVID-19.
This work included reviewing protocols related to infectious disease management, working closely with Public Health Sudbury & Districts, ensuring proper supply of personal protective equipment, and working with community partners to free up space in the hospital for a potential surge of COVID-19 patients. HSN also processed more than 20,000 test swabs from hospitals and care homes across Northeastern Ontario.
Giroux also commented how pleased he was at how well the hospital staff was able to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
"Throughout this experience, I have been so proud of the resiliency, the professionalism, the commitment, the creativity, the calm, the attention to detail and the kindness towards one another that everyone here at HSN has demonstrated," said Giroux.
He echoed the sentiment that hospital vice-president Mark Hartman shared with Sudbury.Com last week; the fact there has been zero transmission of the coronavirus among HSN health care workers.
"I am pleased to report that we continue to meet this goal," said Giroux.
He also reported that HSN's annual hospital survey yielded favourable results. The survey report revealed that each year, in complying with provincial legislation, hospitals conduct patient and caregiver surveys to ensure they are providing quality care that is centred on patients.
Through these surveys, patients are asked 35 different questions about the care they received and the hospital environment. On the vast majority of these questions, HSN is trending better than or equal to other teaching hospitals in Ontario.
Patients are also able to provide comments as part of this survey. The top three positive comments shared by patients and families relate to excellent care received, the excellent staff, and messages of thanks.
Hospital board chair Floyd Laughren also spoke at the meeting to reveal the board has re-appointed Dr. John Fenton as Chief of Staff for a second three-year term beginning on July 1. Dr. Fenton has been a vascular surgeon at HSN since 1994. Pursuant to the Public Hospitals Act, the Chief of Staff is accountable to the Board on matters related to the quality of medical care and is appointed for a three-year term, renewable once.
“Dr. Fenton has provided exceptional leadership over the past three years, and we are delighted that he has agreed to continue to serve in this role for another three years,” said Laughren.
“It is with gratitude that I will continue to serve the members of the medical staff, HSN and the communities that we serve. I want to thank members of the Medical Advisory Committee, the Senior Leadership Committee and members of the professional staff for their ongoing support,” Fenton told the meeting.
In his report, Dr. Fenton also noted the achievements of the medical staff during the pandemic, saying the hospital took all necessary steps to prepare for a surge of patients. He highlighted the recruitment of 35 new physicians in the past year, including 12 family doctors and 23 specialists. By comparison, he noted that in 2018, HSN recruited 20 new physicians.
Laughren also revealed the past year has been exceptionally busy for hospital president Giroux and he thanked him for his continued service. He said the board is proud that in the past year, Giroux was appointed to the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
CIHR is the federal health research agency that provides more than $1 billion annually in research funding to universities and hospitals and Giroux is the only hospital CEO to serve on the CIHR Governing Council, said Laughren.
