Board Chair Message - June 2006

The Annual Meeting of Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is June 22nd. To prepare for the meeting, I have been reviewing our Strategic Plan and the numerous activities and successes of this past year. It is nothing short of amazing to assess what our healthcare teams have accomplished.

The Board of Directors takes great pride in our growing reputation as an acute care provider. We know that our patient care is improving all the time and that we lead our provincial peers in a number of patient care strategies. But, we also know that as we are celebrating our successes, we are also embarking on a strategic journey that will place us among the leading national and international academic, teaching, and research facilities in less than five years. From all that I have seen and heard from our physicians, staff, volunteers and partners, I feel confident that we can accomplish our goals.

To be sure, we are in an enviable position to achieve great things. For example, as we become an appropriately funded academic teaching centre, and medical students are mentored on our site, we know that our efforts will demonstrate that patient care is our focus.

As well, there will be a leading-edge research component to what we do. Molecular Imaging will launch us into an elite group of performers. Only a few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine that we would be talking like this. But, we are!

That is why we are articulating our Strategic Plan with an acronym, TORQ. Easy to envision, we are going to focus on four key initiatives to achieve our goals over the next five years: Teaching and Research, Organizational Transformation, Regional Service Integration, and Quality Patient Care. As I personally address Regional Service Integration, I recently visited some of our regional healthcare providers in communities with hospitals to gain an understanding of how we might better serve our patients and healthcare partners living outside of Thunder Bay. As we address each issue, we know that our incremental gains will commensurately add up to large ones.

We are planning methodically. And, we are planning big. It is a powerful strategy of success. The recent cardiac funding announcement by Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, George Smitherman regarding the angioplasty service is a case in point. Once again, our vision is becoming a reality.

This is my last note to you during this term as Chair of the Board of Directors. Again, I thank you for your continued support.

Ron Nelson, Chair
Board of Directors

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