Photo: 2025 Patient Safety Champion Award recipients.
November 4, 2025
Each year, London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) recognizes the work undertaken by members of Team LHSC to improve patient safety with the Patient Safety Champion Awards. Nominations are submitted by colleagues and leaders. This year, a record 70 nominations were received from across the organization, and they were recognized at a ceremony during Canadian Patient Safety Week (October 27-31).
The 2025 LHSC Patient Safety Champions are:
- Patient Partner Award: Elaine Harrison
- Individual Award: Michelle Bloomfield
- Leader Award: Kevin Burtch
- Physician Award: Dr. Sheena Belisle
- Team Award: No-Holds: Alternative to Restraints for Respect, Mobility and Safety also known as No-HARRMS
- Honourary Certificate: Gizmo
Corporate Privacy Officer (right).
Patient Partner Award – Elaine Harrison
This award recognizes the significant role our Patient Partners play in the development and advocacy of LHSC’s patient safety initiatives. Our Patient Partner Award recipient is someone who has demonstrated a passion for and commitment to patient safety from the patient’s perspective.
Elaine Harrison has been a patient partner with LHSC for three years and works collaboratively with staff, leaders, and fellow patient partners to advance accessibility, quality, and patient safety initiatives across the organization.
Elaine is known for a commitment to promoting a culture where every voice is valued, accessibility barriers are addressed, and safe, high-quality patient-centred care is at the heart of the hospital’s operations.
She received the award for her contributions to actively informing the development and implementation of LHSC's Multi-Year Accessibility Plan, enhancing accessibility in Virtual Care and offering a unique lens to Care Partner presence in working group conversations. Helping ensure decisions made are inclusive by design while advancing equitable care for all patients.
Individual Award: Melissa Bloomfield
The Individual Award, recognizes and celebrates an individual on Team LHSC who has shown, in their day-to-day work, a passion for and commitment to patient safety from a staff member’s perspective.
Melissa Bloomfield is a Registered Practical Nurse with the Victoria Family Medical Centre. She received this award for her work in creating a safe environment for patients who come from marginalized populations and making them feel safe and heard.
She helps connect patients with social assistance programs for various necessities including food, shelter, and transportation. Additionally, Bloomfield builds trust with wellness checks for patients. Her work with patients has resulted in reduced trips to the Emergency Department and improved overall outcomes.
Leader Award: Kevin Burtch
The Leader Award recognizes and celebrates a formal leader at LHSC who embeds all patient safety best practices into their work and encourages their team members to do the same. This year’s recipient is Kevin Burtch, a manager in Facilities Management who encourages his team members to embrace the patient perspective.
Burtch was selected for his consideration of patient safety, his teamwork and collaboration, and his proactive approach to minimize patient impact when work is required. Burtch was recognized for his understanding that a safe environment is foundational to high-quality, compassionate care as reflected in his work.
By connecting with clinical leaders and team members for feedback, Burtch is able to incorporate the patient perspective into his work. Additionally, his proactive communication and collaborative planning allow clinical teams to anticipate and mitigate impacts to care delivery, whether the work is planned or not.
Physician Award: Dr. Sheena Belisle
This award recognizes and celebrates a physician or resident at LHSC who has demonstrated a passion for and commitment to patient safety from the physician’s perspective. Dr. Sheena Belisle in Paediatric Emergency Medicine received this year’s award for her work and leadership in delivering safer, more effective care for children and families through quality improvement.
Dr. Belisle has been involved with more than six active and important quality improvement projects and several key multidisciplinary committees. These include projects on reducing unnecessary blood culture testing, while improving care and maintaining safety; and streamlining processes for managing return visits, which has led to cost savings and a better experience for patients and their families.
She is recognized for fostering an environment for shared learning and mutual respect, leading to open dialogue and collective problem-solving among the team.
Team Award : No-HARRMS: No-Holds: Alternative to Restraints for Respect, Mobility and Safety
The Team Award recognizes and celebrates a team at LHSC that has implemented an evidence-informed quality improvement project that has improved outcomes for patient safety. The recipient of this year’s Team Award is No-HARRMS, a multidisciplinary team including Dr. Monidipa Dasgupta, geriatric medicine and three nurse practitioners, Karli Crunican, Lyndsay Beker, and Michael Olawoore.
Together, they led a concerted effort to shift the practice of physical restraint use on older adults at LHSC toward safer, evidence-informed approaches. They developed and implemented a new Restraints Policy and have supported education across the organization.
Their work has had a significant impact on patients in Acute Care of the Elderly (ACE) unit. Over a three-year period, they were able to decrease the proportion of patients experiencing restraints from 45 per cent to 37 per cent. Additionally, the overall restraint days decreased from 711 to 400, without an increase in sedative drug use, falls or violence rates.
Through reframing care around dignity, autonomy, and respect, the team promoted alternatives that emphasize meaningful engagement, individualized approaches, and collaboration with families.
Honourary Certificate - Gizmo
This year there was one very unique nomination that required an honourary certificate due to the ‘paws-itive’ impact.
Gizmo is a facility dog that joined the Outpatient Child and Adolescent Mental Health program at Children’s Hospital in June 2025, funded by Children's Health Foundation.
Since June, he has supported over 200 children and youth as they undergo intensive mental health treatment. For some, Gizmo is the reason they initially agree to treatment. Gizmo supports patients as they speak about challenging topics including trauma, self-harm and suicide.
Gizmo's handlers, Rachel, Steph and Kayla, work with the patient and Gizmo by implementing commands to meet what the patients have identified as needs. Tailored plans for how Gizmo interacts with patients are co-created with patients, caregivers and the care team.
Congratulations to all the nominees and recipients!