A Submission from the Niagara Health System
(This post, submitted by the Niagara Health System, the organization responsible for the operation of a majority of the hospital services in Niagara, Ontario, reports that the NYHS has received an “excellence-in-quality” seal of approval for its performance. We share this post with you – free of commentary from Niagara At Large – for your information.)
December 21, 2012 – The Niagara Health System is accredited for another three years following an extensive process that evaluated the organization’s performance against national standards of excellence in quality and safety.
Niagara Health System interum CEO Sue Matthews
“We are extremely pleased to receive full accreditation from Accreditation Canada,” says Interim President and CEO Dr. Sue Matthews. “The value of accreditation is both in validating our strengths and learning how we can improve quality in specific areas.”
In their report, the Accreditation Canada team of surveyors noted that they were impressed by our commitment to patient/client centred care, improved community partnerships, resiliency as an organization, and dedication to developing a culture of patient safety. Some of our challenges and opportunities lie in the flow of patients in hospital and the standardization of some processes across our sites. Accreditation standards assess all aspects of healthcare, from patient safety and ethics, to staff training and accessibility of services.
“Our accreditation success demonstrates the diligent efforts of everyone on our team to ensure our patients have a great experience marked by safe, quality care,” says Dr. Matthews.
(Niagara At Large invite all our readers who share their first and last names to share their views on this post.)
Niagara At Large 
I was encouraged to read that things are improving at the Niagara Health System. However, those who did the analysis did not talk to me. I could have told them about a doctor telling me to go home, although I had been brought to the hospital by ambulance. That we got into a loud argument about the fact I could not yet stand up, and was in fact finally admitted with a bowel infection which kept me in hospital for a week.
They didn’t ask me about the time the same doctor ordered X-rays of a kidney I donated years earlier. Apparently, when he examined me he didn’t see the 12″ scar on my side or read in the admission notes that I advised intake that I was a kidney donor.
Nor did they ask about the time this fall when I was kept waiting in the emergency department for nearly four hours although I told triage repeatedly about the increasing pain I was experiencing over that time. They took my blood sample in the waiting room — no privacy there — and found out later I was in fact suffering a heart attack all that time. In fairness, perhaps part of the delay was caused by my waiting to go to the hospital because a few months earlier with the same symptoms I was over a protracted wait time, eventually give a shot of morphine and sent home.
Those who gave the system a good bill of health also bypassed the opportunity to ask me about the time I was brought to the ER by a member of the Cardiac Rehab team but was kept waiting until a patient was taken ahead of me and I had all my paperwork done. I told them of my earlier heart attack and wanted to lie down on an empty bed but was told I could not do so until my paper work was processed.
They didn’t ask about how my wife was kept in the hallway for a week waiting for a bed, only to get one when she reported she had called the newspaper.
And, among other things, they did not ask about the doctor who took information from my wife while keeping his foot on the side rail of her bed or about the fecal material I found on the ER public toilet when I went to use it.
But, I am glad to hear things are getting better!
We’ll see. I am particularly interested to see if a new breed of superbugs is being bred by the ineffective hand-washing process at the entranceways of the various hospitals. Few people use them regularly and those who do often use them ineffectively. Thus, millions of bacteria surely must be surviving the process and surely many of them will grow resistant. However, I must admit the process looks good and may even give a sense of reassurance that the problems with infections in the Regional System may be solved.
I do wonder if I’m just unfortunate to coincidentally arrive at the hospital at inopportune times. Or, do others have similar problem in the system still. I do notice that it has been quite a while since anyone collapsed at a Regional hospital and had to wait for an ambulance to take them to that very hospital’s ER for care.
And, finally, I’m glad to see there is no shortage of funds (at least it appears to me) for PR programs and signage around the hospital to say how good things are. Certainly, those signs should make us feel better.
As I said, I am glad to read that things are getting better. Maybe our Regional health system will one day be among the best and not just among the average for the province.
God bless them for their efforts. Certainly, God bless the majority of doctors and nurses in particular who do a mammoth job daily and give their all for patients. They are the real unsung heroes. Makes me wonder if we would be better off to trim the top of the bureaucracy to provide more patient care and beds where they are most needed.
By the way, does the report even suggest that this recent progress has anything to do with the removal of Ms Sevenpifer: “Niagara’s Sunshine Girl”? By the way, where is she working now: for the government in another position elsewhere? Now there’s something to wonder about.
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GARY
Actually she is NOW working as A CFO for the YMCA and your comment about the TOP HEAVY Bureaucracy is true and it keep growing as the “EMPIRE” cements itself in
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EMPIRE may be just the word!
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