GUELPH – NOVEMBER 1, 2023 – St. Joseph’s Health System President and CEO, Elizabeth Buller, along with the St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph Board of Trustees Chair Michelle Fach, announces the appointment of John Woods to the position of President of St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph (SJHCG), effective Nov. 20.
Mr. Woods is an experienced healthcare executive and has worked across the St. Joseph’s Health System care continuum with leadership roles in hospital, long-term care, and home care. He is an advocate for integrated care that is designed at the point of care and measured from the perspective of patients, clients, residents, and families. Mr. Wood’s empathetic and relationship-based leadership style, with a focus on results, mission, and strategy has been a great value to his roles within the St. Joseph’s Health System.
Mr. Woods has a Master of Arts, Management Studies from Canterbury Christ Church University as well as a Bachelor of Science, Physics from Queen Mary College, University of London. Additionally, John has completed the Advanced Health Leadership Program at the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management, and the Executive Fellowship for Research Application. He is also a member of the Governing Council of the Catholic Health Alliance of Canada and Past Chair of the Catholic Health Association of Ontario.
Mr. Woods is currently Interim President at St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph as well as President at St. Joseph’s Villa, Dundas. He will continue the role at St. Joseph’s Villa as Interim President until a further announcement is made. Both organizations are operated by St. Joseph’s Health System.
About St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph
St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph (SJHCG) is a leader in providing outstanding health care and support to clients (residents, patients, participants), families, and the broader community they serve. Their programs and services support people of all ages who need rehabilitation, complex medical, or long-term care. SJHCG also provides community outreach programs that help people, including those living with dementia or frailty, to manage their conditions while staying active in the community.
www.sjhcg.ca
For further information, contact Mae Cruz, Corporate Communications Specialist, St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph. Mae.Cruz@sjhcg.ca
Hamilton – October 12, 2023 – St. Joseph’s Health System President and CEO Elizabeth Buller, along with St. Joseph’s Joint Boards of Governors Chair Barb Beaudoin, and with the approval of the Diocese of Hamilton, announces the appointment of Michael Heenan to the position of President of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH), effective Nov. 27, 2023.
Michael Heenan, PhD, brings 22 years of progressive executive leadership experience in large community and academic hospitals and at the Ontario Ministry of Health, including as Assistant Deputy Minister, Hospitals and Capital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Currently, he holds the position of Executive Vice-President of Strategy, Corporate Services and Chief People Services, at Humber River Health.
Mr. Heenan is a service-based leader, who values transparency, engagement, and collaboration. He is a community-minded health leader focussed on operations, the continuum of care, the importance of evidence-based research, and government planning and decision-making processes. He has twice facilitated the governance and operational integration of two hospital systems (Unity Health and Trillium Health Partners) and has redesigned several quality processes to improve performance. His experience is broad-ranging, including overseeing the construction of a 320-bed long-term care home, and leading recruitment and wellness strategies. Within the Ministry of Health, he addressed hospital budget reform and hospital capital planning grants, in addition to his work within the ministry’s COVID response team.
A life-long learner, Mr. Heenan is familiar with Hamilton, having earned a PhD in Business Administration Health Policy Management, an MBA in Health Services Management, and Bachelor of Arts, all at McMaster University. He also familiar with SJHH, having held several leadership positions there between 2003-2009, including Director Quality Planning and Performance Improvement before moving into leadership positions at other Ontario hospitals, including Trillium Health Partners, St. Joseph’s Health Centre Toronto, and Brant Community Healthcare System.
“It’s an honour to return to St. Joe’s Hamilton where I started my career,” Mr. Heenan said. “I am excited about working with the board, the leadership team, all the physicians, staff and volunteers on continuing the mission of the Sisters and advancing care outcomes for the people of Hamilton.”
Mr. Heenan is a strong communicator who values leadership teams, partnerships, teamwork, and collaboration, and will be working closely with regional and provincial partners in health care.
St. Joseph’s Health System, in collaboration with CHX Technologies, is launching a study to determine the feasibility of using a new at-home, preventative dental treatment called Prevora as a convenient approach to improve oral health among those receiving home healthcare services.
Many patients receiving home healthcare services experience poor oral health because they have difficulty maintaining good oral hygiene, cannot easily get to the dentist, or have a medical condition such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or congestive heart failure (CHF) that is interrelated with inflammation of the gums. Moreover, poor oral health can lead to extra visits to the doctor and more hospital care.
Starting in Hamilton, this first-of-its-kind study will examine the use and delivery of Prevora to avoid compounding health problems and costly care visits, while evaluating improvements in oral health, general health, and quality of life for patients in home care.
Prevora (DIN 02046245) is an antiseptic coating applied to all surfaces of the teeth, up to and including the gum line, that manages the bacteria causing poor oral health. The non-invasive treatment is painless and can be delivered conveniently, quickly, and without aerosols. Prevora has been shown in over 20 years of controlled studies and in Canadian dental and medical practices to be safe, effective, and well accepted by thousands of adults with a high risk of poor oral health.
“As the Government of Canada develops a new national dental plan for high-risk groups, it is timely to assess how non-invasive preventive dental care can be integrated into our overall healthcare system,” said Carrie Beltzner, Interim President of St. Joseph’s Home Care and principal investigator of the study. “This feasibility study is particularly exciting because it is the first to work out the delivery of preventive oral healthcare by a hygienist-nurse team during routine home care visits,” added Beltzner.
The study is co-sponsored by CHX Technologies and Innovation Factory’s Southern Ontario Pharmaceutical and Health Innovation Ecosystem (SOPHIE) program and is being facilitated through The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton. It will enroll up to 30 patients with COPD or CHF and observe improvements in oral health, blood markers of inflammation, cholesterol and glucose, improvements in respiratory conditions, additional costs of care, and quality of life over five months of home care visits. Prevora will be applied during a routine home care visit and patients will be assessed on their oral health status during subsequent visits. The study’s results are expected in the second quarter of 2024.
Prospective study participants living with COPD or CHF and enrolled in St. Joe’s Integrated Comprehensive Care program in the Hamilton Region are encouraged to email innovation@stjoes.ca for more information.
About St. Joseph’s Home Care
St. Joseph’s Home Care operates its Integrated Comprehensive Care (ICC) program – Canada’s largest integrated care program with over 35,000 hospital bed days saved since 2012, up to 30% reduction in ED visits and increased patient and family confidence. St. Joseph’s Home Care is an integral partner within St. Joseph’s Health System in the development of new models of integrated care and has been providing high quality, values-based home and community services since 1921 in a spirit of compassion and dedication. It has evolved from a nursing agency to offering a much broader range of services, and its steadfast commitment to delivering exemplary client-focused care continues.
About CHX Technologies
CHX Technologies is a research-based Canadian pharmaceutical company and developer of Prevora. CHX’s mission is to develop Prevora as a first-in-class new preventive, painless treatment for the most common and expensive chronic disease for adults – poor oral health. The company has completed a full battery of studies of Prevora in preventing dental decay and treating oral inflammation simultaneously; has approvals for Prevora in Canada, the EU, and the UK; and is now partnering with healthcare organizations such as St. Joseph’s Home Care on integrating Prevora into the healthcare system.
About The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton
The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton (RSJH) supports high-impact research with fulsome, personalized solutions to clinical trial management. With a unique and collaborative approach, RSJH combines the talents of over 700 world-class researchers and staff with the cutting-edge resources of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. We support the growth of research and innovation within St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and across St. Joseph’s Health System to improve the care of over one million members of our community each year.
About St. Joseph’s Health System
St. Joseph’s Health System (SJHS) is a Canadian multi-hospital and care network based in Ontario. Its locations include St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener, St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Guelph, St. Joseph’s Lifecare Centre in Brantford, St. Joseph’s Villa in Dundas, and St. Joseph’s Home Care. SJHS encompasses five cities, with over eight thousand staff serving a population of over two million people. SJHS is a sought-after leader in the delivery of integrated care, which is transforming patient care and outcomes.
Each year, the Research Institute of St. Joe’s – Hamilton publishes an annual report to highlight how research at our hospital impacts the science of medicine and the lives of patients around the world.
This year’s report explores regional and international collaborations, state-of-the-art treatments, new ways of thinking about cardiovascular disease, the vision of the urological oncology research centre, and even the science of research design. Download your copy today to learn about the exciting advancements made throughout 2018.
Article: The Toronto Star | Reporter: Theresa Boyle | March 2, 2019
A week after having part of a cancerous lung removed, Grant Lewis grew concerned that the incision wound on his chest had become infected.
The 54-year-old Beamsville construction worker dug out a phone number he had been given when he was discharged from hospital. Call it any time, day or night, if you run into trouble, he was told.
Lewis dialed the number and was connected to his nurse, Anna Tran, at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton. On her advice, he used his mobile phone to snap a photo of the inflamed and seeping lesion, and then emailed it to her.
Almost 40 kilometres away, Tran looked closely at the image on her cellphone. She then forwarded it to the home-care arm of St. Joe’s, along with an email requesting that Lewis be seen that same day for wound care.
Within hours of placing the call, Lewis answered a knock at his front door. It was a visiting nurse. She cleaned his wound, changed the dressing, and then updated his medical record on her tablet computer.
Tran and the rest of Lewis’ care team at St. Joe’s all had access to his electronic medical record. The home-care nurse’s update assured them all he did not have an infection and was recovering well.
This little scenario, which took place in January, provides a glimpse into the future of health care in Ontario, as Health Minister Christine Elliott envisions it.
The sectors have a reputation for being siloed. The weakest parts of the health system are the transfer points between them. Hand-offs can be bumpy and patients can fall between the cracks.
Requisitions for ongoing services don’t always get passed along in a timely fashion. Sometimes it seems like they don’t get passed along at all.
Patients, still feeling unwell, can be left to navigate their own way through the Byzantine health system, which is a world unto itself with a seemingly foreign language full of acronyms and jargon.
Because Ontario is not as far along as it could be when it comes to electronic medical records, it can take days for updates to get transmitted between providers. When care is delayed, patients’ health can deteriorate, families can panic and unnecessary trips can be made to the emergency department.
Elliott told a news conference that the overall intent of her plan is to make the system easier for patients to navigate by “seamlessly” connecting sectors and making greater use of digital tools.
Critics of the government’s plans say they are overkill and are worried that the health system could be destabilized while “radical” changes are made. That has been the experience of other provinces that have gone this route, they note. They argue that this much change is not necessary for the Conservative government to make good on election campaign commitments to end hallway medicine, open more long-term care beds and create more mental health and addiction services.
Following Elliott’s Tuesday announcement, the Star followed up with her office to get a better idea of what her reform plans would look like on the ground. It was suggested we take a look at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, specifically at its Integrated Comprehensive Care (ICC) program in which Lewis was a patient.
The program started as a pilot back in 2012. Known then as the “bundled care” program, it was designed to connect surgical patients with a single team of clinicians who could care for them before, during and after their operations.
To date, more than 17,000 patients have gone through St. Joe’s ICC program. In addition to thoracic surgery patients such as Lewis, they include patients who have had hip and knee replacements, suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure, undergone cardiovascular surgery and been on peritoneal dialysis.
It has resulted in a savings of up to $4,000 per patient, a 30 per cent reduction in emergency department visits and 30 per cent reduction in hospital readmissions, a savings of more than 30,000 bed days and an increase in patient satisfaction, according to the hospital.
St. Joe’s is in the process of expanding it to all surgeries and some ER patients. There are plans to further expand it to mental health and long-term care patients, and to frail seniors in their homes.
Elliott would like to see this type of program emulated across the province.
“Patients should be fully supported when returning home from the hospital and be connected to home-care services right away. A connected and co-ordinated system is our vision for a patient-centred health-care system,” she said in a written statement provided to the Star.
“The integrated-care model at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton is a prime example of the important work that can be achieved when health care is centred around the patient,” her statement continued.
Lewis said he was very pleased with the care he received. Any concerns he had were immediately addressed and he felt confident he was in good hands, he said in a phone interview.
Best of all, he only had to stay in hospital for three nights, he noted. Assurances of good, ongoing care at home allow for quicker discharges.
“I wanted out. I am much more comfortable and relaxed in my own place,” Lewis explained
He had “virtual” followup appointments with Tran, an ICC co-ordinator and Lewis’ main point of contact in the program. Through Skype and a specially designed app, they could have face-to-face conversations, using cellphones, tablets or laptop computers.
The program has been a success with caregivers such as Lewis’ wife Nancy who said she appreciated the immediacy of it: “When you are in a hospital bed and you need help, you press a call button. That’s what this app is like. Anna Tran, someone with so much knowledge, is right there.”
Need a knee replacement? St. Joseph’s Healthcare has a robot that does that
St. Joe’s will do research to prove the technology works to avoid pitfalls plaguing robotic prostate cancer surgery.
Feb 25, 2019, by Joanna Frketich The Hamilton Spectator
Canada’s first knee replacements by a doctor-controlled robot have taken place at St. Joseph’s Healthcare as part of a study to prove the effectiveness of the technology and avoid the ongoing funding pitfalls plaguing prostate cancer surgery.
The robot has been used in four knee operations since Jan 18 in a pilot study funded by hospital donors.
“It’s very fledgling,” said Dr. Anthony Adili, who did the surgeries. “We’re just starting down a very exciting path … At the end of the day I think patients will benefit immensely from this new technology.”
St. Joseph’s, which specializes in robotic surgery, is getting the proof it needs from the start to show the technology is worth the extra cost so it doesn’t end up embroiled in the same dispute it faces with prostate cancer surgery.
“We’re in a golden opportunity to do that kind of pivotal research to inform our decision-making,” said Adili, chief of surgery at St. Joseph’s. “The research is being done (elsewhere) but it’s not high quality research so it’s hard to make definitive decisions and definitely difficult to make policy decisions. We want to produce that high quality data.”
The research is significant because a lack of evidence was behind a controversial recommendation in 2017 by the Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee (OHTAC) against publicly funding robotic surgery to remove a cancer patient’s prostate gland.
It was a stunning blow to St. Joseph’s, where the vast majority of radical prostatectomies are done with the help of the da Vinci robot system.
Currently, the province pays the hospital the same price as the traditional operation and donors make up the extra cost of the robot. It’s an increasing burden on the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation as the robot is rapidly becoming the surgery of choice with men from Kitchener to Niagara willing to travel and wait longer to get it.
A final decision on whether the province will eventually fund the robot for prostatectomies at an estimated cost of $800,000 — $3.4 million a year has been put off while St. Joseph’s gathers evidence on how it saves the health care system in other ways, such as a faster recovery time, since it’s no longer possible to do randomized trials.
“It’s so ubiquitous and it’s almost the standard of care,” said Adili. “It’s impossible to randomize someone to robotic prostatectomy versus an open prostatectomy. Nobody will go for it. We lost that opportunity.”
Orthopedic robotic surgery was approved in Canada and the United States only in the last year so high-quality studies can still be done. It’s the same for robotic thoracic cancer surgery with St. Joseph’s already running a multicentre trial.
“We don’t know who it’s going to benefit so we can do these randomized trials and develop that data that will help drive decision-making,” said Adili.
The biggest roadblock is that St. Joseph’s is the only centre in Canada doing robotic orthopedic surgery, making a multi-site trial of thousands of patients impossible to do here. With a price tag of $2 million a robot, it will be hard to find other centres with the appetite to join in.
“We’re going to have to partner with centres in the United States and convince them to contribute data,” said Adili. “The problem is they are buying robots like crazy because it is driving their business. They are going to be less inclined to want to randomize one versus the other. Some of our progress will be hampered until we get more units in Canada because Canadians have a very different mindset and will participate in trials.”
In the meantime, St. Joseph’s has started the pilot study that it hopes will provide enough evidence to get grants for the eventual large trial.
It’s important because Adili says one in five patients are currently unhappy with the outcome of their knee replacement and the robot’s precision could drop that number substantially. In addition, it makes partial knee replacements much easier, so surgeons will be more likely to do them.
“By replacing just the bad part of the knee, I’m leaving more of the patient’s normal anatomy behind,” said Adili. “It should feel like a more normal knee, recovery should be quicker and they should have better functionality. A total knee, although it is a successful procedure, it still does not match the mechanics of a normal knee.”
With the popularity of the robot for prostate cancer, Adili doesn’t expect any difficulty in recruiting patients.
The first was 66-year-old Peter Sporta from Oakville, who waited an extra two months to get a robotic partial knee replacement on Jan. 18.
“I wasn’t scared at all” Sporta said about being the first patient. “I couldn’t wait.”
Sporta was in the hospital for one night and walking the next day.
“Within three days I threw away my crunches and my cane,” he said. “For sure I would recommend this.”