Alumni

Message from the President

I am very happy to report that the inaugural joint SOG-HPME & CCHSE Toronto Chapter event entitled, “Does Culture Eat Strategy for Lunch” was a huge success!

Thank you to members of our Planning Committee, Tina Smith ('86), Susan Tremblay ('94), Malak Sidky ('93), Brock Hovey and Cheryl Harrison ('00).

Thank you also to our generous sponsors who made this event possible:

Please see below for details of this event.

Jennifer Clarke ('92), President

Missed the Joint CCHSE / HPME Event? Get the Slides

On January 18, 2005, the Society of Graduates in HPME and the Toronto Chapter of the Canadian College of Health Service Executives organized a joint event entitled: "Does Culture Eat Strategy for Lunch?"

The event, which was held at the Park Hyatt Hotel in downtown Toronto, was well attended. Key note speaker Brian Lee, President, CEO and Founder, Custom Learning Systems Group Ltd. gave a very stimulating and provocative talk.

Panelists included Maura Davies, Vice-President Capital Health; Wayne Flynn, Vice-President, Sales, Hill-Rom; and Judi Clarkson, President, Mediated Solutions Inc. Each panelist offered their perspective on the topic. All agreed that a good corporate culture was indeed necessary in order to achieve strategic goals and objectives. The dialogue and question period was ably moderated by Louise Lemieux-Charles, Chair and Associate Professor, HPME.

An evaluation of this first-time session showed that the attendees were very pleased with the day and it is our hope that this event will be an annual one.

Brian Lee's Presentation [PowerPoint]

Leadership and Innovation

Mary Jo Haddad Offers Five Ingredients of Leadership

Mary Jo Haddad, President and CEO of the Hospital for Sick Children, is often asked by young nurses what the secret is for becoming a successful, respected leader. In a profile published in Nursing Leadership (Vol.17, No.4, 2004), Mary Jo identifies five key points:

1. Find passion in the work you do
2. Stay true to yourself and committed to your values
3. Be willing to be mentored and to mentor others
4. Maintain a life-long commitment to learning
5. Remain open to the opportunities that come your way.

To read more, see the complete article in Nursing Leadership at Longwoods Publishing. Mary Jo is Adjunct Lecturer and alumnus (Class of '98) of the Department of HPME.

On the Move

Diane Doran Appointed Interim Dean, Nursing

Professor Diane Doran (PhD, Class of '95) was appointed interim dean of nursing by Academic Board of the University of Toronto on November 11, 2004 . Doran, associate dean (research and international relations), joined the faculty of nursing in 1995. She holds a PhD in health administration from HPME, an MHSc in healthcare practice from McMaster University , a diploma in nursing from George Brown College and a BA in psychology from Trent University. A recipient of an Ontario Premier's Research Excellence Award, Doran's recent research focuses on healthcare teams, the evaluation of methods for improving the quality of nursing practice and the design and measurement of nursing sensitive patient outcomes. She is a co-investigator with the nursing health services research unit at the faculty and the patient safety research cluster at U of T. As well, Doran has helped establish joint initiatives with nursing faculties in the United States, Japan and Finland.

Alison Quigley - New Executive Director of Child Health Network

Alison Quigley (MHSc, Class of '03) has accepted the positions of Executive Director of the Child Health Network (CHN) effective Tuesday, January 4, 2005. Alison has been involved in the CHN through her role as director of Acute Care Transport Services at The Hospital for Sick Children. Most recently, she participated in the development of the CHN Paediatric Transfer Guidelines and the Transport Task Force of the CHN Internal Review Committee. She will continue as an active member of the Provincial Planning Committee for Paediatric Transport. Alison will lead the CHN to its next level of development and future collaboration with the Local Health Integration Networks as they are established throughout the Toronto/GTA.

Kim Timleck - New Telemedicine Project Lead

Kim Timleck (MHSc, Class of '04) has accepted a new position as the Project Lead of a telemedicine initiative at London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario . Kim is leaving her former position as Manager of Program Development and Quality Assurance at the Oxford Community Care Access Centre.

Alumni Profiles

Alumni of the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (HPME) are involved in a broad range of leadership activities across the health care sector. To promote greater awareness of the many accomplishments and innovations of this diverse group, we are pleased to include alumni profiles as a regular feature of the NewsBytes.

This issue features Corinne Berinstein, former Internal Auditor at the Hospital for Sick Children and recently appointed Supervisor at the Ontario Auditor-General's Office (MHSc, Class of '99).

Corinne Berinstein – Risk Manager

"The alternative to risk management is crisis management, and we all know how well that works"...

...said Corinne Berinstein when we met to discuss her activities at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Corinne represents the new face of risk management in health care.  The richness and diversity of her training and experience have uniquely equipped her to lead “value for money” audits at Sick Kids, where she has been the Internal Auditor since 2001. Corinne will build on these experiences in her new position as Supervisor with the Ontario Auditor General's Office which she began in February 2005. The former Provincial Auditor has recently been given expanded powers in order to strengthen its transparency and accountability in the public sector. For the first time, the Auditor General will conduct value-for money audits of organizations in the broader public sector that receive provincial funding, including health care. Value for money audits examine how well the government's programs and activities are being managed and make recommendations on how to improve the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of operations. In Corinne's new role, she will oversee provincial health care audits.

Corinne's educational background includes an MBA from York University, a license as a Chartered Accountant and Certified Forensic Investigator and an MHSc degree from our own HPME. She has worked as a physiotherapist and as a project manager in both continuous quality improvement (at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario) and in clinical education (for the Council of Ontario Universities).

In her position as Internal Auditor with Sick Kids, Corinne was responsible for ensuring that the hospital was operating in compliance with applicable legislation, regulations, hospital by-law and policies and assuring the Board of the adequacy of the hospital's operational, financial, management and security controls. Corinne helped to introduce a new model of risk management which examines both clinical and corporate risks, and the controls that management has put in place to mange those risks. Previously the hospital internal audit function was solely financial.   In the private sector, value can be read in a financial bottom line, while in health care risk management adds to the value of the product: safe, effective care for patients.

Corinne's combined theoretical understanding of her field and personable ability to connect with hospital personnel enabled her to work towards building a culture of transparency, accountability and risk management across the organization. As we sat in the hospital cafeteria for this interview, a constant stream of greetings and conversations with staff passersby testified to the web of relationships Corinne has built through the hospital.

Among the many benefits to the hospital of the enhanced risk management program developed under Corrine's leadership was its ability to respond swiftly and effectively to the SARS crisis.  Having reviewed the hospital's security and other processes, senior leaders were able to implement the necessary controls and procedures to limit risk to an acceptable level.

Risk management in health care has undergone shifts from a discipline-specific to an enterprise-wide model. Based on an annual hospital-wide risk assessment, Corinne identified the top ten organizational risks. These risks clustered around corporate risks (human resources, financial, etc) and patient care/safety. Corinne's experience with enterprise-wide risk management within a large health care organization will be invaluable as she takes on the much larger project of overseeing audits of all provincial expenditures on health in Ontario.

Good luck, Corinne!

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