Royal Review
February 13, 2015
Service Awards celebrate staff commitment
The films have been directed,
the votes counted and soon it
will be time to celebrate the
seven films submitted for this
year’s RVH Film Festival. Join
us for The Vickies:
 Tuesday, February 24, 2015
 12:00 p.m.
 RVH Auditorium
Don’t be afraid to break out
the black tie, if you like, or
come as you are—either way, it
promises to be an amazing
event. Between the red carpet,
the celebrity judges, the paparazzi and of course, TEAM
RVH, it will be the place to see
and be seen!
Thank you to Environmental
Services, Outpatient Mental
Health, Information Technology
Services, the CTO Team, the
Administrative Assistants Community of Practice, the RVH
Foundation and the Hearts &
Minds Staff Campaign Committee for submitting films this
year. Break a leg!
Thirty-five year recipients—Kathy
Mitchinson (cancer program) and
Dave Rogler (Logistics).
Every year, we gather to celebrate the Service Awards
which are given to staff and physicians for every five years
of employment at RVH. In 2015, 346 staff and 53 physicians reached service milestones ranging from five to 40
years of service. Some of those honoured worked at the
old RVH site on Ross Street, this site and now in the new
expansion. Cumulatively, the years of service represented
at this year’s ceremony totaled nearly 5,000 years. This is
an incredible testament to the loyalty and dedication of
TEAM RVH.
Kathy Leonard (Manager, Birthing Unit), Nancy Perkins
and Judy McFadden (both Coding Specialists in Health
Records) all they received their award for 40 years of service. Additionally:
 Seven staff were honoured for 35 years of service
 14 staff received an award for 30 years of service
 36 staff were inducted into the Quarter Century Club
for RVH employees with 25 or more years of service
To see a photo album from the event, visit the intranet
(under Home > RVH Celebrations).
RVH wowed surveyors! We got A+
Our onsite accreditation is
now officially over and congratulations seems to be in
order—we got an A+!
The survey team was incredibly impressed by the
skill and pride consistently
demonstrated in TEAM
RVH’s work, and by the clear
passion for our MY CARE
strategy of safe, quality patient-centred care.
The team assessed 26 Priority Process Areas and
2,610 standards. They were
impressed by what they
found and gave RVH an outstanding 98.24 per cent compliance score.
Survey Team Leader Andrew Williams, President and
CEO of the Huron Perth
Healthcare Alliance, told the
standing-room only crowd at
the accreditation debrief, “We
were remarkably impressed
by RVH. The commitment
and dedication to patients
was palpable. You all know
RVH’s Accreditation Team (from left)—John Jennett and Miranda
Townsend, PMO; Suzanne Froment, Accreditation Manager;
Janice Skot, RVH President and CEO; Nancy Savage, Executive
Vice President, Patient and Family Experience; and Vicci Fallows,
Accreditation Specialist, celebrate with Andrew Williams (far
right), lead surveyor with Accreditation Canada.
what a great job you are doing and how impressive you
are, don’t you?”
We will continue to work
with Accreditation Canada to
better understand their find-
ings, and in turn, provide
them with more details about
our procedures, protocols
and practice to make sure
they have a complete picture
of RVH.
RVH Royal Review
February 13, 2015
Service Awards (continued)
30 year recipients Karen Winter, Sharon Phillips, Elaine Cox and Gwen Tjart
25 (left, right) and 30 (centre) year recipients—
Patricia Fraser, Helen Hajgato and Kim Giffen.
(Left) 25 year recipients and
new Quarter Century Club
members. Back row - Elizabeth
Johnson, Mary Robertson,
Suzanne McKee and Lynda
Knight. Front row - Barb Irving,
Merilyn Gibson and Sarah Morrison
10 year physician recipients—
Drs. Murali and Mukta Krishnan
Congratulations to everyone celebrating a
service milestone!
(Right) 20 year recipients Angela McCuaig and Laura McArthur.
Capital Equipment Committee approves more than $3 million in new equipment
The RVH Capital Equipment Committee, chaired by Joan
McKee, Director of Business Development and Supply Chain
and co-chaired by Dr. Peter Dauphinee, Clinical Director, Surgery, has received final approval from the Senior Leadership
Team to approve just over $3 million in new equipment in a
robust, transparent process that began in October 2014.
The committee is comprised of 12 clinical and non-clinical
voting members, as well as nine non-voting members who provide voting members with expert advice on the requested
items. Each requested item is scored on a matrix that includes
weighted percentages for each of the following criteria:
 The impact on patient/staff safety
 Is it new technology or is the current equipment obsolete
 Will it provide a service or operational efficiency
 Is it required by Accreditation Canada or other regulated
body
 How well does it align with RVH strategy/clinical priorities
Each request is accompanied by a presentation, followed by
a question and answer period. From these presentations, the
committee may consider such things as consumable or service
agreement costs associated with an item and if there is potential alternate funding available. Informed with these answers,
the request is scored using the matrix, and to ensure full transparency, voting members must show their score to the rest of
the committee.
“Our capital equipment process is a very fulsome and open
Page 2
process,” says McKee. “By having a mix of voting members as
well as subject matter experts at the table, we ensure we have
all the right information to make informed decisions. At the
completion of the capital equipment process, the committee
knows they have made the best decisions based on the information provided to them.”
In addition to the capital equipment funds, the RVH Foundation will also be providing more than $560,000 for appropriate
capital purchases.
“I was impressed with the process; it was well organized and
ran smoothly,” says Dr. Dauphinee. “There are capital needs
throughout the health centre and the fairness of this process
ensures all requests receive equal consideration. The process
is thorough and the decisions are debated openly to eliminate
bias. The values of our organization really shine in the character of the people around the table.”
While the approved items won’t start arriving until after April
1, some of them include:
 Revolving doors at the Atrium entrance
 Two OMNI beds for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
 AV system for the patient simulator
 20 stretchers and 20 beds
 10 panda resuscitation infant warmers
 CO2 Laser
 Holmium Laser
Inspiring care...
RVH Royal Review
February 13, 2015
An artist’s journey back from stroke
RVH wins national award
RVH was recognized with a prestigious national leadership
award for our MY CARE strategy.
The Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC)
recognized RVH with a silver award, as one of the top two
health or education organizations in Canada for our submission “Driving Quality by Transforming Culture” based on
our MY CARE strategy. The video that accompanied our
winning submission can be found on the intranet. Attending
the presentation were (left to right) - Nancy Savage, Executive Vice President, Patient & Family Experience; Dr.
Chris Tebbutt, Vice President, Academic and Medical Affairs; Ray Frank, member, Patient Family Advisory Council;
Rick Horst, Past Chair, RVH Board of Directors; Janice
Skot, RVH President and CEO; Kristen Parker, Chair, RVH
Board of Directors; Bob Morton, Board Chair, North
Simcoe Muskoka LHIN; David Coward, Vice President and
Chief Human Resources Officer; Treva McCumber, Vice
President, Transitions, Diagnostics & CNE; Suzanne
Legue, Chief Communications Officer.
Barrie’s John Gould was an
internationally known artist
whose creative gift was
stripped from him in 1996
when he suffered a stroke.
The stroke affected his
right side leaving him unable to speak, write or draw.
His wife, Ingi (shown
right), was determined to
help him back to the world
of art. Through intense therapy at RVH, John began to
draw again.
He then went on to create
some of his most powerful
work.
Although he passed away
in 2010, Ingi still carries the
torch for John and shares
his message of hope and
recovery after stroke.
John’s work is currently on
display in our corridor gallery. Ingi will be speaking
about John’s journey on February from stroke’.
Ingi will then do a similar
20 at noon in the RVH Auditorium.
presentation to the staff on the
All of TEAM RVH are welcome
Rehabilitation unit.
to attend and be inspired as she
presents ‘An artist’s journey back
Coming soon: Patient & Family Guide
Unit Results:
January 2015

Inspiring care...
RVH’s inpatients, who will be spending three or more nights in the health centre, will soon receive the new Patient & Family Guide to provide them with one
comprehensive resource for information important to themselves and their
families.
“Currently, patient admission packages include so many individual forms
and pamphlets patients don’t know where to start,” says Dana Naylor, Operations Director, Medicine program and Patient Flow who assisted Corporate
Communications in spearheading the project. “We realized that all these
forms could be combined into one resource—the Patient & Family Guide. We
expect that by having most information in one guide, it will help improve the
patient experience when reviewing admission packages.”
We partnered with Willow Publishing to produce the guide at no charge to
RVH. Based on the 12,000 copies Willow provides us annually, we are limiting distribution to patients expected to be in hospital for three or more nights
and to those for which it will likely be most helpful.
The guide’s content was developed based on submissions from Managers
and Directors throughout the organization, who were also consulted regarding
distribution parameters. The guide’s was also reviewed and endorsed by
RVH’s Patient Family Advisory Council.
In the coming weeks, the Patient & Family Guides can be ordered by applicable inpatient units via the Forms room. An electronic version of the guide is also available on the new RVH website under Patient Information.
Page 3
February 13, 2015
RVH Royal Review
Foundation News
Jennifer and Jason O’Neill recently celebrated the opening of
their new McDonald’s restaurant in Barrie’s Park Place and TEAM
RVH had reason to celebrate as well! $1 from every Happy Meal
sold from January 29 to February 1 at the location was donated to
support patient care at RVH. McHappy Day is just around the
corner and local McDonald’s restaurants have once again committed to supporting future Child and Youth Inpatient Mental
Health services at RVH – mark your calendars for May 6!
Thank you to Anna Huynh (centre) and the team at Shoppers Drug
Mart Georgian Mall for raising $17,757 in this year's Tree of Life Campaign in support of women's cardiac services through the Hearts &
Minds Campaign. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of
death for Canadian women. One in eight women between the ages of
45 and 64 live with cardiovascular disease. Thank you to Shoppers
Drug Mart for being a leader in women's health promotion and thank
you to everyone that supported the Tree of Life Campaign this year!
RVH updates policy on e-cigarettes
Submitted by Ginny Myles, Smoking Cessation Coordinator
Many of us know that smoking is the most preventable health risk in Ontario, attributing to 13,000 deaths annually and costing the healthcare system a fortune.
There is some good news though. Smoking prevalence in Simcoe County has decreased from 23 per cent in 2009/10 to 20 per cent in 2011/12 (compared to 18
per cent overall in Ontario).
RVH became a smoke-free property in May 2006 because we are committed to
promoting a healthy community and safe working environment for all individuals.
We care about our patients’ and staff well-being and safety. The RVH smoking
cessation program continues to support those who use tobacco by providing best
practice smoking cessation supports such as counseling and pharmacotherapy to
deal with withdrawal symptoms. All employees have access to these supports via
application forms available in the Occupational Health & Safety department.
The health centre’s smoke-free property administrative policy and procedure has
recently been revised to include banning all combustible smoking and tobacco-like
products including e-cigarettes due to a lack of evidence regarding their safety.
The revision to the RVH policy incorporated input from various stakeholders such
as Security and the Smoking Cessation Task Force.
Health Canada, the Canadian Lung Association and many district health units
recommend against their use and/or are restricting their use. The Simcoe Muskoka
District Health Unit’s statement encourages a ban on e-cigarettes anywhere smoking is currently prohibited, whether provincially or municipally mandated, including
public places and workplaces.
The government of Ontario is now moving to restrict their distribution and use
while the Smoke Free Ontario Act is also being amended. Ecigarettes will soon be regulated, controlled and prohibited similar to how cigarettes controlled at the present time.
The Smoking Cessation Task Force is proud to report RVH is
ahead of the curve about health promotion as reflected in this
updated policy and procedure. For more information, please contact Ginny Myles at [email protected] or ext. 48240.
Walk in My
Shoes
There are other opportunities to support
RVH through golf. For details, please
contact:
Christine Baguley
Community Development Coordinator
RVH Foundation
705-728-9090 x41612
[email protected]
Page 4
Inspiring care...