President's Corner - Let's Talk

Today, I’ll be participating in a national conversation to break the stigma associated with mental illness.

The second annual Bell Let’s Talk Day is taking place nationwide.

The initiative seeks to break the often negative stigma associated with mental illness. In support of the event, Bell Canada will contribute five cents for every long distance call and text message its customers make to support mental health related programs across the country.

Olympian Clara Hughes will help kick off the conversation, which includes an online portal at http://bell.ca/letstalk.  Visitors to the site can post their comments and questions while learning about mental illness and how they can begin their own conversations at home and in the workplace.

The event is part of the largest ever mental health initiative by a Canadian-corporation. The five-year $50 million Bell Mental Health Initiative was announced in September 2010 and focuses on 4 pillars: anti-stigma efforts, improving care and access, research support, and new workplace initiatives.  

It’s important to recognize mental illness can affect anyone. It could be your neighbour, your family member, a friend or even yourself.

To help treat this patient population, York Central Hospital launched a pilot project at Alexander Mackenzie High School. From December 2011 to June 2012, an on-site mental health professional will be at the school one day a week to connect students with the appropriate resources and to also provide an immediate link to York Central Hospital, if necessary.

“The presence of the on-site mental health worker aims to reduce the stigma often associated with mental health as well as provide students with the information they may require in a comfortable and familiar environment,” says Donna Spevakow, Senior Project Manager & Operations Director of the Mental Health Program at York Central Hospital.

The project was made possible by the James Peek Memorial Golf Classic. The tournament was created to support mental health initiatives in honour of James Peek, who suffered from mental illness as a teenager. Since the first tournament 12 years ago, the James Peek Memorial Golf Classic has designated more than $250,000 towards the mental health program at York Central Hospital.

York Central Hospital offers many other Mental Health Inpatient and Outpatient services including a Psychiatric Inpatient Unit, Day Treatment Program, Day Hospital and Crisis Intervention Services, to name a few. Our dedicated team of mental health experts works hard to ensure those suffering from mental illness get the care they require.

To find out how you can help support mental health initiatives at York Central Hospital, please give me a call at 905-883-2032 or email bleacy@yorkcentral.on.ca

In the meantime, I hope you will join me in the conversation.

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO

President's Corner - Gala Wrap Up

On Friday, November 4^th, a magical, record-breaking event took place: our 24^th annual gala.

The Moonlight & Magic themed-event, held at LeParc Markham, was filled with great music, delicious food, spectacular entertainment and a lot of inspirational support for our hospital, York Central.

Our gala broke not one, but two records this year: one for highest revenues at $571,000 and the other for the most guests in attendance. More than 1,000 guests, sponsors, volunteers and donors attended the sold-out event.

This year’s funds will go towards the purchase of a standardized, state-of-the-art infusion pump system for York Central Hospital. The new pump system increases patient safety by auto-programming medication dispensing. This allows nurses and other staff to provide more beside attention and education to our patients and their families. This, in turn, results in greater interaction and recovery planning, improving the overall patient experience. York Central Hospital is one of only three hospitals in the region that has this standardized pump system, which was a safety compliance rating of 99.6%.

The impact of this pump system are resounding: it frees up precious time for our staff to spend with their patients, it provides life-saving medications and pain relief to seven out of every 10 patients and importantly, one standardized pump system decreases the costs associated with having several systems throughout the hospital. It is through your generosity that this investment is possible and we are incredibly grateful.

As President & CEO of the Foundation, I’ve learned that as much as we try to inspire our donors, in fact, our donors are the ones who inspire us. It is so rewarding to see events like the Moonlight & Magic Gala come to life because of the generosity, support and dedication of volunteers, sponsors, donors and guests like each of you. We are especially thankful to Bell, who has been our generous Presenting Sponsor for the past two years.

An event of this magnitude takes hundreds of hours of planning from dedicated volunteers and donors. We are so fortunate to have such an incredible group of volunteers who have worked over the past year to ensure this gala’s success. Under the leadership of Gala Chair Julie Fuda, our volunteers have worked day and night, along with our Foundation staff, to collect auction items, set up the venue and ensure the finishing touches were in place. We cannot thank you, our volunteers and donors, enough for everything you have done for our Gala, and everything you continue to do moving forward.

York Central Hospital’s vision is to become the “finest community hospital in Canada”, and through your incredible generosity, we are well on our way to realizing this goal – thank you!

We sincerely appreciate your ongoing support of our hospital. Your gifts of time, talent and donations are truly making a difference in the lives of our grateful patients.

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO

President's Corner - Beginning of a New Season

It’s hard to believe the last long weekend of the summer is beginning in a few short days. The past eight weeks seem to have flown by for us here at the Foundation!

As a new season starts, I am pleased to announce that our annual Report to Donors is hot off the press and will be mailed in the coming days. In it, you will find stories about the numerous projects that you have so generously helped to fund that are improving patient care as well as a list of the donors who have inspired us.

We are also extremely pleased to report we exceeded our revenue goal for the 2010/2011 fiscal year thanks to your incredibly commitment and dedication. As a result, we were able to fulfill our commitment to fund leading-edge technology and equipment throughout York Central Hospital.  

Moving forward, we have several exciting challenges this year including funding standardized infusion pumps hospital-wide. These auto-programmed pumps deliver fluids, blood products and medications to patients in nearly every department of the hospital. Since they are programmed to dispense dosages at the appropriate times, nurses and other care givers can spend more time with patients and their family members, improving the overall quality of care.

Fundraising has already begun for this exciting project: the 2008 York Central Hospital Foundation Gala, Stardust Ball, raised more than $530,000 towards the purchase of the pumps.

Additionally, the Casino and Hold’em Poker Tournament, held on May 12, 2011, raised $133,000 towards the purchase of infusion pumps in the Nick & Rosanne Cortellucci Family Emergency Department. This annual event, hosted by Foundation Board Member Joseph Sgro, has raised nearly $300,000 for York Central Hospital’s priority projects over three years.

Lott & Company, Chartered Accountants also purchased an infusion pump in December 2010.

While many pumps have been generously funded, the need is still great. Our goal is to purchase 401 Symbiq infusion pumps and raise $1.2 million this year towards their purchase.

In addition to the pumps, we’re raising funds for life-saving medical equipment and technology including urogynaecology equipment in our newly opened Paul B. Helliwell Foundation Minimally Invasive Surgery Suite, an ultrasound machine, automated dispensing cabinets for medication, patient ceiling lifts for the recently renovated Intensive Care Unit and adult ventilators to name a few. All of these investments will have a dramatic impact on the care that is provided at York Central Hospital.

We look forward to continuing to partner with you and your family as we work towards helping York Central Hospital realize its vision of becoming the ‘finest community hospital in Canada’.

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO

PS If you are interested in finding out more about any of our priority projects, please feel free to give me a call at 905-883-2032.

President's Corner - Honouring our incredible volunteers

This week marks one of the most important weeks of the year for our Foundation: National Volunteer Appreciation Week.

Our organization relies on the dedication, support and commitment of our volunteers in nearly every area of our daily work. From our Board of Directors to event committees to in-office support, our volunteers work tirelessly to help us become closer to realizing York Central Hospital’s vision of becoming the finest community hospital in Canada.

I feel that we’re blessed to have more than 120 volunteers on our committees, Board of Directors and in our office.

Their leadership, accountability and participation helped us exceed our fundraising goal last year. They’re ensured our events are as successful as possible. They assist us in the office with day-to-day activities. They provide a second, third and fourth opinion and they’ve opened the doors to many new prospects, donors and opportunities.

In addition to the many volunteers in our Foundation, we are incredibly grateful for the more than 900 volunteers at York Central Hospital. These men, women, students and community members play a pivotal role in both the Foundation and the Hospital. The Volunteer Association of York Central Hospital has donated more than $4.4 million to the Foundation towards funding priority projects and generously provide more than 85,000 hours of service each year to the hospital. Thank you to each one of the volunteers for their incredible commitment, service and support.

Our volunteers are fueled by the kindness of their own hearts and have personally taken it upon themselves to work towards making York Central Hospital a better place for our patients, staff and community. While this is the one week in the year that highlights their hard work, we are grateful for our volunteers each and every day. The Hospital and Foundation would truly not be the same without them.

On behalf of the entire York Central Hospital Foundation team, a sincere, heartfelt thank you to our incredible volunteers for everything they have done in the past and continue to do as we move forward!

Sincerely yours,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO

President's Corner - Happy New (Fiscal) Year!

Today marks the first day of a new month and the first day of our next fiscal year.

This past year has been a tremendous success: we welcomed a new President & CEO to our hospital, York Central Hospital’s Board of Trustees appointed a new chair and vice-chair and we opened the region’s most advanced Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

And, we exceeded our fundraising goal for the year thanks to the incredible support from donors like you! Through your generosity, we were able to fund more than $1 million in medical equipment and technology, a newly renovated and expanded NICU and a second Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Suite. This means York Central’s team of dedicated medical professionals will have the equipment and facilities they require to continue delivering expert and compassionate care to you, the patients.

Although we’re only a few hours into our new fiscal year, I can’t help but get excited about our projects and goals this year. The development of a two-site health care system is moving forward which means we’re one step closer to being able to provide expanded health care services to residents in Southwest York Region and beyond. We’ve have a new list of priority projects to fund this year, including renovating six paediatric rooms and outfitting them with new equipment.

We’re also raising funds to standardize intravenous pumps throughout the hospital.

Currently, the hospital uses eight different infusion pump systems that do not have built-in safety features. The pump selected by the Hospital is the Symbiq Infusion System – one with a near perfect safety rating.

This pump system increases safety for patients by auto-programming medications, preventing human errors.  They are electronically manufactured to detect potential errors, averting mistakes while tracking “near misses” for future improvement.  In addition, since the pumps are programmed to dispense the appropriate dosages, nurses and other staff members have more time to spend with patients, improving the overall quality of care.

Finally, we’ve welcomed a new Director of Major Gifts to our team, Luci Anderson. Luci has leadership experience in both the profit and non-profit sectors, including her most recent employer, Providence Healthcare Foundation, where she was the Director of Major Gifts & Campaigns.

With new leadership and several exciting projects under way to improve care for the people in our community, I’m hopeful, through your support, this year will be our best to date!

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO

President's Corner - Zack's Dream Room

It’s amazing what a community can accomplish when they work together.

Two weeks ago, we found out about a young boy named Zack Hamilton. Zack was born in 2007 with several medical conditions including a congenital heart defect, fluid on his brain, hearing loss and global developmental delay. Most uniquely, geneticists discovered Zack had a deletion of the 12^th chromosome – the only recorded case in the world.

Unfortunately, Zack passed away on March 10, 2011 at the age of three-and-a-half. Staff at York Central Hospital, who had become quite fond of Zack during his stays over his short life, put forth the idea of creating an Elmo-themed room in honour of their “frequent flyer”. Zack’s Dream Room was born.

Foundation staff worked with Zack’s mom, Heather, to create a website to raise the required $25,000 to make the room a reality and to raise awareness of this great cause.

The site has been live for less than two weeks and in that time, more than $10,000 has been raised from individuals and businesses alike. Several events within the community have been planned and more and more businesses have stepped forward, offering to donate proceeds from their services and products to Zack’s Dream Room. The outpouring of support has been outstanding!

Having been in fundraising for more than 20 years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a number of families who seek to fundraise in honour of a loved one who has passed away. Their strength never ceases to amaze me, and the Hamiltons are no exception.

This particular case is especially unique as the project was started by staff. Not only does this showcase the incredible impact Zack and the Hamiltons have had on the YCH family, it also represents the character of our staff. Their dedication to their workplace and most importantly the patients is truly remarkable.

Donations to support Zack’s Dream Room can be made online or by calling the Foundation office at 905-883-2032.

Thank you to everyone who has showed their support for this special project. Through your generosity, we’re one step closer to creating an incredible tribute for this memorable little boy.  

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO

President's Corner - RHCOC Awards

Last night was an evening of accomplishments, celebrations and recognition.

The 20^th Annual Richmond Hill Chamber of Commerce Business Achievement Awards were held at the Sheraton Convention Centre and eight local businesses received recognition for their hard work, dedication and commitment over the past year.

Being recognized by your peers for your hard work, dedication and service excellence is an outstanding accomplishment and I felt privileged to have had the opportunity to attend.

Winners of the prestigious awards were as follows:

General Award:
Gordon Wood Optical
Mister Transmission (International) Limited
Reggio Kids
Richmond Hill Toyota
Costco Wholesale Richmond Hill

Non Profit Award
Yellow Brick House

PowerStream Conservation and Environmental Sustainability Award
Toronto Recycling Inc.   

Mayor’s Award
PCI Geomatics Enterprises Inc.

It was inspiring to see the awards given out and to hear speeches from the CEOs, owners and employees of each company. In Richmond Hill, our economy is thriving and prosperous and it is because of business owners and employees like the ones who attended last night.

Congratulations to all of the award winners!

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy
President & CEO

President's Corner - Board Retreat

An organization is only as strong as its weakest link, or so the old adage goes. If this is the case, York Central Hospital Foundation’s future has never looked stronger or brighter.

Recently, we hosted a Board Retreat in the Berwick Family Auditorium. The event’s title was “Becoming a High Performance Board” and focused on how to improve upon past successes while obtaining future goals.

The evening opened with a presentation from York Central Hospital President & CEO Altaf Stationwala about the future of health care in Southwest York Region.

Board Members then enjoyed a presentation focusing on fundraising trends as well as comparables for local organizations. A discussion was initiated about moving forward as a collective, accountable group and how each Board Member can become increasingly involved in the Foundation.

The questions raised by Board Members were thought-provoking and their feedback will be invaluable in helping us reach our goals both now and in the future.

Having an engaged and dedicated Board of Directors is crucial to our success. As members of our growing community, you can rest assured each and every Board Member is committed to raising funds for medical technology that will improve health care for you and your family.

The retreat renewed my optimism and belief for the future, and I hope it did the same for you. With your support and our Board of Directors committed to achieving our goals, we’re well on our way to helping York Central Hospital “become the finest community hospital in Canada.”

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO

President's Corner - Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Suite

February is more than half over and that means the grand opening of our newest priority project is around the corner!

Construction began on our second Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Suite in this month, and is expected to be finished in the spring.

Minimally Invasive Surgery reduces patients’ pain, decreases recovery time, helps to improve wait times for surgical care and overall improves patient outcomes and satisfaction.

Our first MIS, The Paul B. Helliwell Foundation MIS Suite, was opened in September 2009 and our team of established MIS surgeons is able to provide a broad range of MIS laparoscopic services including:

·     Adrenalectomy – the removal of cancerous adrenal glands

·     Percutaneous nephrolithotomy – removal of kidney stones

·     Laparoscopic nephrectomy – removal of all or part of an infected or cancerous kidney

·     Laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy (LAVH)

·     Laparoscopic abdominal hysterectomy (LAH)

·     Colon and rectum resection for benign and malignant disease

·     Gastrectomy

·     Hartman’s procedure and reversal of Hartman’s procedure – emergency procedure for a perforated bowel

·     Hernia repair

·     Splenectomy –removal of a diseased or damaged spleen

·     Thoracoscopy – internal examination of the pleural cavity (the body of cavity that surrounds the lungs

York Central Hospital is one of a few hospitals in the province that has such a complement of general surgeons with fellowship level training and the skills to perform advanced MIS procedures.  As a group, we are performing among the highest volumes of laparoscopic colon resections in the GTA.  As well, we are a provincial leader in MIS for colon cancer surgery. 

With this success come challenges. Simply, we do not have enough time available to schedule all the surgeries in one MIS Suite.  Moreover, to help York Central Hospital move closer to fulfilling our vision of becoming the finest community hospital in Canada, we are expanding our MIS services to include urology and gynaecology which will help patients suffering from prostate or bladder cancer and fibroid tumors.

With a second MIS Suite, operating room turnover, operative times, physical burden on nurses, team morale and overall efficiency will be improved which will add to these savings.  In addition, a second MIS will help our ability to attract top notch surgeons and retain our expert nurses and allied health professionals.

Perhaps most importantly, the impact on the patients will be outstanding.

The total costs for a second MIS Suite are estimated to be $525,000. If you are interested in helping us fund this vital initiative, please email me. Together, we can improve health care for residents in Southwest York Region.

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO

President's Corner - Let's Talk... About Mental Health

Today, the inaugural Bell Let’s Talk Day is taking place nationwide. The initiative seeks to break the often negative stigma associated with mental illness. Bell will contribute  five cents for every long distance call and text message its customers make to support mental health related programs across the country.

Olympian Clara Hughes will help kick off the conversation, which includes an online portal at bell.ca/letstalk. Canadians can post their comments, questions and their own smiles while learning about mental illness and how they can begin their own conversations at home and in the workplace.

The initiative is part of the largest ever mental health initiative by a Canadian-corporation. The 5-year $50 million Bell Mental Health Initiative was announced in September is focused on 4 pillars: Anti-stigma efforts, improving care and access, research support, and new workplace initiatives.   

It’s important to recognize mental illness can and does affect anyone and everyone. It could be your neighbour, your family member, a friend or even yourself.

At York Central Hospital, we offer many Mental Health Inpatient and Outpatient services including a Psychiatric Inpatient Unit, Day Treatment Program, Day Hospital and Crisis Intervention Services, to name a few. Our dedicated team of professionals work hard to ensure those suffering from mental illness get the care they require to properly treat and manage their illness.

Today, I’ll be joining in a national conversation to break the stigma associated with mental illness. Will you be joining?

For more information, please visit bell.ca/letstalk or bce.ca/mentalhealth.

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO

President's Corner - Welcome

Welcome to York Central Hospital Foundation’s newest communication venue: social media!

Through my posts on President’s Corner, I’ll be able to provide you with an inside look at the Foundation while providing updates on YCH advances in patient care and links to interesting fundraising articles. 

The past few months have been exciting to say the least, especially with the completion of a long anticipated project: our new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

On December 14, 2010 we officially opened the new unit, and what an exciting day it was. Donors and staff were treated to a tour of the new unit by Dr. Gerald Friedman, Chief of Paediatrics at York Central Hospital (YCH), followed by the official opening ceremonies, held in the Berwick Family Auditorium.

The new NICU will eventually have the capacity to care for twice as many of our tiniest and most vulnerable patients as the old unit.

 Saying “thank you” just wouldn’t be enough to our donors, especially our largest, the Volunteer Association of York Central Hospital, who contributed $1 million to this vital project. Association President Pat Young spoke on behalf of the Volunteers at the opening ceremony and thanked each and every volunteer for their dedication and support for this project and many others.

Additionally, thanks to our most successful gala in our history, we provided the hospital with the funding required to purchase a state-of-the-art Nuclear Medicine Camera. This camera greatly improves the detection and visualization of many disease processes and operates 50% faster, and uses 50% less radiation. 

While we’ve had a great end to the year, I can’t help but get excited about what’s to come in the following months as we continue to improve patient care through philanthropy. Construction has begun on our second Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Suite dedicated to Urology and Gynaecology and is expected to be completed in the spring. This will mean even more patients will experience less post-operative discomfort, smaller incisions and faster healing times.

We have yet to reach our fiscal year-end goal, but I’m hopeful through the generous support of our community and donors like you, we’ll be able to exceed even our own expectations and fulfill our obligation of funding life-saving medical equipment and technology to YCH.

I look forward to keeping you connected and helping the hospital achieve its vision to “be the finest community hospital in Canada”.

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO