Message from President & CEO Debbie Sevenpifer

I continue to be amazed by the way people across the hospital system pulled together to ensure a coordinated approach to provide for the safety of our patients and each other during the recent H1N1 pandemic. At the peak of H1N1 activity in Niagara, we were experiencing more that 40% higher volumes of patients in our Urgent Care Centres and Emergency Departments.

I witnessed and heard about many wonderful examples of staff, physicians and volunteers going above and beyond to manage the situation at hand.

While we received a lot of feedback through our daily command centre calls during the pandemic period, we wanted to hear more and we wanted to hear directly from the people on the frontline of H1N1. We used a web-based survey to reach out to staff, doctors and volunteers who use e-mail.

Like your response to the H1N1 pandemic itself, the response was again amazing. As I write, we have received 855 web-based survey responses in addition to a number of written survey responses from our volunteers. The survey was set up to take respondents less than three minutes to fill out. Within an hour of sending out the e-mail link, we received over 100 completed surveys.

Here are some of the highlights from the survey feedback:

• 57% of respondents identified themselves as clinicians; 40% as non clinical; two per cent as doctors and two per cent as volunteers
• 98% of respondents received the H1N1 Update every day and 90% of respondents read the update daily
• 20% of respondents found the information in the H1N1 Update to be extremely helpful; 28% said it was very helpful and 40% said it was helpful to their ability to do their job during the pandemic
• 88% of respondents knew who to contact for information
• 80% of respondents had enough pandemic supplies like sanitizer and masks available in their work area

More than 400 individual comments were provided in the survey responses and in upcoming weeks we will group and theme the comments. Already some key themes are emerging – opportunities for improvement around controlled entrances, the role of the greeters, the process for calling in sick, and the redeployment process.

Another theme that emerged was the number of comments expressing thanks to the hospital for asking for feedback. I was impressed by the constructive, thoughtful and insightful comments that were shared. This feedback will be vital in improving upon our pandemic and emergency preparedness plans for the future.

I was also touched by the number of comments that acknowledged what a great job everyone did. Once again, the staff, physicians and volunteers of the NHS demonstrated great teamwork in continuing to deliver quality care during very stressful times.

I have heard many positive comments from residents in the community regarding the NHS’s response to H1N1, including thanks for our preparedness and timely response. Their thanks, and mine, are owed to all of you – our staff, physicians and volunteers. «