Nicole Everest will spend her ninth and final year on the Health Sciences North board of directors in the role she has held for the past three years.
The board voted unanimously to keep Everest on as chair for a fourth year at their annual general meeting on June 21, after changes to their bylaw a year ago allowed Everest to take on a second term as chair.
That decision was made when Dr. Denis Roy sat down at his final AGM as the hospital's president and CEO in 2017, making way for his successor, Dominic Giroux, to take over the role in October 2017.
"Our policies and bylaws indicate that the chair can serve a two-year term with an option to renew another two years," said Everest. "Because we had a transition with the CEO and Dominic has not even completed his first year and we have a lot of major projects in play. It was proposed at the governance meeting that I stay on for an additional year for the completion of those major initiatives."
One of those initiatives that Everest spoke of was front and centre at the hospital's annual general meeting, and that is their 2019-2024 strategic plan, which is slated for completion in January 2019.
Special advisor to the CEO for strategic planning, Maureen McLelland, was the guest speaker for the evening and brought those in attendance completely up to speed on the process in a 45-minute presentation that covered the timeline from where the process started back in October to present day.
“We heard from more than 3,000 people across Northeastern Ontario since March. We spoke with patients and families, employees, medical staff, volunteers, donors, members of the general public, health care providers, learners, community and academic partners, indigenous communities, other northern hospitals, elected officials and national thought leaders on a variety of topics," said McLelland.
"We also engaged with groups representing at risk populations including seniors, mental health patients, and members of the LGBTQ/transgender community."
She explained that the 32-member steering committee leading the process has gathered rich feedback around what the hospital does well and what it can improve on, in health care services and research. Emerging themes will guide HSN and the Health Sciences North Research Institute (HSNRI) in creating a plan for the next five years.
With consultations now completed, the steering committee will prepare a draft strategic plan to be validated in the fall. The strategic plan will be used as a framework for guiding performance goal-setting and budget decisions by the Boards of Directors of HSN and HSNRI from 2019-2024.
It will feature no more than five key goals or aspirations, and no more than 25 outcomes to be achieved by 2024.
In the more immediate future is the upcoming completion of the Northeast LHIN's third party review of HSN's budget, which is expected to be completed on June 30.
The Health Sciences North board of directors has approved a $505.8-million budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year, but it will not be implemented until a third-party independently reviews and approves the hospital's plans.
The Northeast LHIN is conducting an independent review of the approved budget as well as a systemic review of the pressures that the health system is experiencing. The LHIN says this is needed because it is concerned with the magnitude, pace and impacts of HSN’s plan to live within its means.
In its 2018-19 budget, the board approved the 2019 construction completion of both the 4,800 sq. ft. PET-CT suite and the 28,000 sq. ft. Learners’ Centre.
Additionally, the budget will cut 113 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs (37 fewer FTEs in management/non-unionized positions and 76 fewer FTEs in unionized positions). There will be a $6.9-million reduction in program expenses outside clinical departments and a 23-per-cent reduction to the capital budget for renovations, equipment, information technology.
"There's been a lot of interviews and they're just finising up their interview process and their next step is to submit their report and we should be hearing from them within the next week," said Everest. "We expect that there will probably be some suggestions but I can't speculate what they'll be. Another set of eyes is always welcome and I look forward to hearing back from them on what they've learned and observed. We've had some excellent feedback internally but nothing that I'm at liberty to share until the report is generated."
Everest says that she expects the hospital to share the results of the review as soon as they know them.
For his part, Giroux says that he's delighted to have Everest staying on for another year as the board chair.
"There was unanimous support at the governance committee and the board of directors for the appointment of Nicole for a fourth and final year as chair," said Giroux. "She is an exceptional chair and has been instrumental in ensuring a smooth transition between the departure of Dr. Roy last year and COO Joe Pilon this year and my arrival last October. I'm delighted to continue working with Nicole and the rest of the board over this next year."
Giroux also spoke of the third party budget review process which has been combing through a 2018-19 budget that will return HSN to a balanced budget by 2019-20.
"Our understanding is that it's still on track to be completed by June 30, I can't really speculate on the outcomes of that third party validation but we're pleased that the process is on track," said Giroux.
"We have already implemented the approved budget as it relates to reductions in non-salary as well as reductions in staffing for management non-unionized positions."
The process itself is new to Giroux, who never had to go through a third party validation review during his eight years as president of Laurentian University.
"We're a 24/7operation so we continue to operate our day-to-day operations...our focus is really on implementing most of the reductions (non-salary, and non-unionizedmanagement positions) and providing timely and accurate information to the third party validation team," said Giroux.
"There's simultaneously a lot of important work going on with the strategic plan, the capital master plan, accreditation readiness, development of a digital health strategy for next year, enhancements to our teaching and research collaborations, all of that work continues while we provide quality care to patients."
