Message from President & CEO Debbie Sevenpifer

Debbie Sevenpifer,
President and Chief Executive Officer

Our local Auxiliaries and Foundations do an incredible job of raising funds and donations. On behalf of the patients served by the Niagara Health System and the people who work here, I would like to take this opportunity to thank these hard-working and committed people – many of them volunteers — for the contributions they make year after year. This past year has been especially challenging due to the economic downturn, and our Auxiliaries and Foundations have handled this increased pressure with grace and dedication.

Thanks to their ongoing efforts and partnership, we have been able to move ahead with investments in life-saving diagnostic equipment like the new state-of-the-art 128-slice CT scanners recently installed at our St. Catharines General and Welland sites.

It is a common misunderstanding that medical equipment is paid for by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. With few exceptions, such as radiation equipment, it is the responsibility of hospitals to either generate sufficient cash flow from operations by balancing their budgets or by operating surpluses or to fundraise to pay for medical equipment. Even though the NHS is performing better than 85 per cent of peer hospitals in Ontario with respect to efficiency, our hospital has and will continue to experience operating deficits over the next few years until the Hospital Improvement

Plan is implemented. As a result, the NHS does not have significant cash to fund new equipment purchases. One of the greatest challenges we currently have as an organization is funding our equipment needs, to keep pace with new technology and provide state-of-the-art medical care to the residents of Niagara.

The NHS must rely solely on donations from Foundations and Auxiliaries to fund necessary new and replacement medical equipment. Last year, $4 million was raised through local fundraising activities. In addition, $1 million was drawn from operations to deal solely with unfunded emergency purchases of equipment that broke down and could not be repaired or could no longer be used because of a change in standards of patient care.

Every year, our hospital compiles a comprehensive list of much-needed equipment, furnishings, technology and renovations. The process to compile the annual list involves literally hundreds of people from across our patient care programs and sites. As demand for care grows and medical technology advances, the list gets bigger and longer each year, illustrating the ongoing need to invest in our equipment.

Patient care equipment and medical technology is highly specialized and as a result very costly. Our hospital’s needs outpace our ability to fund everything on the annual list.

Ensuring our hospital makes the best use of our resources is essential, and we have a rigorous process in place to prioritize equipment needs. As well, through the creation of Centres of Excellence under the Hospital Improvement Plan, going forward we will also be able to avoid the duplication of equipment across our sites.

However, at this time, we have more than $31.5 million in identified equipment and renovation needs, most of which we cannot fund. We are projecting that our equipment requirements over the next five years will exceed potential sources of funding by an additional $8 million (approximate) each year.

As you read about the new CT scanners in this issue of Niagara Health Now and learn more about the tremendous benefits they bring to enhancing patient care, I am sure you too will appreciate the efforts being made by our Auxiliaries and Foundations to raise the funds required to fund this vital equipment.