Keynote Speeches

2007 Annual General Meeting
Tuesday, June 19th

Message from Cliff Nordal, President and Chief Executive Officer
London Health Sciences Centre

Check against delivery.

Thank you Doug. Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for being here. It is an absolute delight to be here in this shell space that will soon be the KL Sumner Centre of Health Learning; as well as home to medical daycare, endoscopy and day surgery suites, imaging, the orthapaedic clinic and women’s care program offices. If you’ve had a chance to view the drawings on the easels located throughout this floor, you are probably as excited as I am about the future of health care in London.

As you may already know, this building is the future home of the Grace Donnelly Women’s Health Pavilion and Children’s Hospital. It will also be home to a number of other programs including acute mental health, medical and surgical inpatient units and clinical laboratories. At ten (10) stories and six hundred and twenty thousand (620,000) square feet, this is one the largest new hospital buildings to be constructed in Ontario in the past decade.

We should be proud of this accomplishment and of course inspired to complete the work ahead so we can bring our health care professionals and patients together in this state-of-the-art hospital within the next 3 years. The contract to complete the interior will be issued this summer and our journey to provide the best health care possible to our community will be renewed.

As Board Chair Doug Alexander mentioned earlier, the theme of our Report to the Community and Annual General Meeting is Exploring the Journey of Care. Today, I want to share with you my reflections on the journey LHSC has traveled over the past year and path we have mapped out for the future.

But first, let me first acknowledge the work of our Board of Directors and in particular Doug Alexander, for the on-going commitment to London Health Sciences Centre.

I would also like to note that as the shared President and CEO for London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Healthcare, London, I am thankful to both hospital Boards and all three foundation Boards for their dedication to London’s hospitals and the creation of a truly integrated healthcare system for our city and region. This level of integration between two major teaching hospitals in Ontario is unprecedented. We are clearly leading the way in this province as we work more closely than ever before in meeting each person’s needs as they interact with the health system throughout their life journey.

Doug Alexander has just completed the first year of his two-year term as LHSC’s Board Chair. I can’t tell you how much I have appreciated Doug’s commitment to advancing healthcare and helping us to secure our future as a financially healthy hospital. I look forward to another great year of working with Doug and the entire Board.

Doug and I share a similar level of excitement about the future because this past year represented the end of a very long and arduous journey. Yes – I am speaking about the significant financial issues that have affected our hospital for many years. While I do not want to dwell on the financial details that are summarized and available in the report you have in front of you, I would like to impress upon you that resolution of our financial issues is an extraordinary achievement and important milestone in the history of LHSC.

After months of tenacious, persistent and, sometimes difficult, negotiations with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the Honourable George Smitherman, announced in February additional funding for London’s hospitals. I want to thank our local MPPs – Chris Bentley, Dev Matthews, Steve Peters and Kahlil Ramal (who is with us today – thank you Khalil). Our local elected officials have been tireless advocates and I very much appreciate their on-going support to ensure high quality health care in London and region. The announcement in February allowed us to sustain services, balance our budget and move beyond most financial “roadblocks”.

Our hospital ended the 2006/07 fiscal year with a surplus and we were also able to submit a balanced Hospital Annual Planning Submission, or HAPS-as we like to call it. For the first time ever, LHSC has signed a Hospital Accountability Agreement with the government.

We have set a new course for our financial health with balanced budgets, clear performance commitments and planned capital investment. I am looking forward to working with our government partners and funders to continue to secure a strong financial future for London Health Sciences Centre.

While we still face several financial challenges, I believe the Board of Directors and senior leaders look forward to the opportunity to better balance financial accountability with stewardship of our mission of patient care, research and teaching -- a mission that remains our primary focus on the journey of care.

Let me share with you some of the mission-based highlights that clearly convey the essence of our journey.
First, we continued to advance patient care. In August, London Health Sciences Centre continued its unprecedented record of medical breakthroughs by achieving another Canadian first. Cardiologists Dr. Lorne Gula and Dr. Allan Skanes were one of two independent medical teams who used new electro anatomical mapping technology to perform pulmonary vein ablation for atrial fibrillation.
Atrial fibrillation is an arrhythmia characterized by an irregular heart rhythm that can lead to weakening of the heart muscle and even stroke in some high-risk patients. The new technique enhances patient safety during the course of the four to six-hour procedure by improving the accuracy of measurements and placement of the catheter. I also understand that many patients, who are otherwise healthy people, can be completely cured with ablation. I am proud that our physicians have again demonstrated their leadership in using new technology to improve the way in which we care for patients.
Also this year, LHSC’s Critical Care/Trauma Program introduced 24/7 Critical Care Outreach Teams at both University and Victoria Hospitals. These nurse and respiratory-therapist based teams, led by a critical care intensivist, allow our hospital to bring critical care support beyond the walls of the ICU to high-risk patients located throughout our inpatient units. Through ongoing assessment, early intervention, rapid response and proactive consultation, they are able to enhance care and respond to the needs of our most seriously ill patients.

I am pleased to report the Children’s Hospital has also implemented the Critical Care Outreach Team model as a pilot project for paediatric care. Clearly, program led initiatives such as the CCOT enhance our patient care model and help us live our mission to providing excellence in patient care.

In 2006 LHSC’s Multi-Organ Transplant Program celebrated over thirty years of compassionate care and medical innovations. Over this thirty-year history, transplants have gone from risky procedures to successful, even routine, operations! I am amazed that more than four thousand (4000) transplants have been performed here. Equally amazing is that our longest-surviving kidney recipient is celebrating thirty-three (33) years of health after her transplant in 1973. Of course, we all know that demand for donated organs outstrips supply, but at LHSC, staff and researchers are dedicating their energies and resources to finding alternative solutions.

Much of this work will be done in partnership with the Lawson Health Research Institute at the Matthew Mailing Centre for Translational Transplant Studies. Construction of the Centre, made possible by a $500,000 gift from the Mailing Family in memory of Matthew, is scheduled to start this year and will be located on the 4th floor of the Legacy Research Pavilion at University Hospital.

Our emphasis on the importance of research in advancing innovative patient care for our community and the world is also reflected in the appointment of Dr. David Hill, Integrated Vice-President of Research and Scientific Director of Lawson Health Research Institute, the research arm of LHSC and St. Joseph’s. David is internationally renowned for his research and I look forward to hearing more about the cutting edge research activities at LHSC during David’s remarks later in this meeting.

We continue to attract the best and brightest in medicine and in fact, forty-eight new physicians, midwives and dentists joined London’s hospitals this year. One of those physicians is Dr. Richard Kim, who relocated his lab and research team from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville Tennessee to London.

Dr. Kim, a clinician-scientist scientist in the Department of Medicine and Medical Director of the new Clinical Investigation Unit, is conducting research at London Health Science Centre to enable individualized drug therapies for our patients. With new personalized drug treatments, patients will experience fewer side effects and fewer adverse reactions. We welcome Dr. Kim and his exploration into this exciting field of medicine that will benefit not only our community but also the world.

As I mentioned earlier the third component of our mission is teaching. In October, LHSC proudly hosted the first International SPECT/CT Education Series at our CSTAR facility. In partnership with GE Healthcare, the Molecular Imaging Master Series educational program trains physicians on the clinical benefits of SPEC/CT and how it can influence patient management. The SPECT/CT, acquired in December 2005, is another remarkable advancement in medical imaging that improves diagnosis and the selection of treatment options.

Also in keeping with our tradition of teaching, pathologists Dr, Michael Shkrum and Dr. David Ramsay released their new textbook on the forensic pathology of trauma. This comprehensive text is on its way to becoming the desktop companion to most pathologists practicing autopsy pathology.

As you can see, the journey of care, of scientific discovery and of learning are all interlinked paths that shape the overall journey of London Health Sciences Centre and contribute to our success and our mission. The past year has been one of progress on many fronts. Many important financial issues were resolved, patient volumes remained high, we had our highest student numbers ever, and our research efforts continued to expand.

It is important to note that we continue to be challenged in our efforts to balance the demand for service with our available resources. I am specifically referring to cancelled surgeries and other negative impacts caused by temporary bed closures. Bed closures arise directly from a national nursing shortage that impacts our ability to fully staff our units, resulting in up to thirty (30) beds closed during the year. We are actively recruiting nurses and at this point we have hired two hundred and twenty (220) – almost 50% of our four hundred and fifty (450) target .

To minimize the impact on patients, we have embarked upon a series of projects aimed at improving patient access and flow through our emergency departments, operating rooms and in-patient units. I know I speak for many of us, when I say that we are distressed and concerned for patients and their families when they must wait one or two days in our emergency department before admission or when surgeries are cancelled at the last minute. We are actively seeking solutions to ensure our community members continue to have access to health care when they need it.

I want to close today by talking about the special connection hospitals have to their communities. Doug spoke earlier about the community response to the potential evacuation of University Hospital last December and how various groups in the community where there for us in our time of need. We are very grateful for such support. I am also proud that, on the flip side, our commitment to the community reaches beyond our workplace. In addition to spending their days caring for patients, many of our staff and physicians devote their personal time to enriching the lives of others. I consider it a privilege and honour to celebrate this volunteer community service among our staff.

We established the President’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Community Service in honour of the community service legacy of LHSC’s first President and CEO, Tony Dagnone. Our goal is to recognize annually an individual at LHSC whose volunteer achievement has made a difference to the lives of people in our community. This year, during the call for nominations, we were amazed by the amount of volunteerism that happens at all levels of our organization - from helping the homeless or coaching kids to developing programs for immigrant woman and serving on the Boards of non-profit organizations. LHSC is a hospital of caring people who keep on giving even when their shift is over.

I am pleased to announce that earlier today we presented Janice McCallum, the Director of Acute Medical Care and Community Transition with the first annual President’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Community Service. Through her volunteer efforts with the Victorian Order of Nurses, Janice has demonstrated dedication, enthusiasm and leadership and has truly made a difference to the lives of people in our community. Janice – please stand to be recognized.

In closing, it’s no surprise that I am extremely proud to be part of the journey that London Health Sciences Centre began over 130 years ago. It’s been 18 months since I joined this hospital and I am impressed and grateful for the ongoing support and generosity of the people at LHSC.

The path of this hospital has seen great achievements and milestones. Our journey would not have been possible without the dedication of all the people that make-up London Health Sciences Centre, the staff, physicians, researchers, volunteers, donors, students and patients. I continue to be excited to work with all of you as we explore the future of health care together.