2. Context: Hospital Profiles

When it comes to diversity, each healthcare setting has its own context, challenges, and opportunities. Below are the profiles of various hospitals that have successfully implemented policies and programs that work. Look out for the common themes of communication, inclusion, and partnership.

William Osler Health System is an acute care community hospital serving Brampton and North Etobicoke. Their three hospital sites include Brampton Civic Hospital, Etobicoke General Hospital, and Peel Memorial Centre for Integrated Health and Wellness. Their mission is innovative healthcare delivered with compassion. Their vision is patient-inspired health care without boundaries.

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The Scarborough Hospital and the Rouge Valley Health System merged on December 1, 2016. Just now they are called the Scarborough and Rouge Hospital and incorporate the General campus and the Birchmount campus of The Scarborough Hospital, and the Centenary campus of the Rouge Valley Health System. The Scarborough Hospital is a regional centre for dialysis and is also renowned for its mental health, paediatrics, chronic disease prevention and management, and cancer care programs. The hospital is also a referral centre for vascular surgery, pacemakers and cataract surgery. Its vision is to be recognized as Canada’s leader in providing the best health care for a global community.

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Hamilton Health Sciences is a family of seven unique hospitals, a cancer centre, and an urgent care centre, serving more than 2.3 million residents of Hamilton and south-central Ontario. Hamilton Health Sciences is the second largest hospital group in Ontario, and serves as a regional referral centre for cardiac, stroke, burns, trauma, neurosurgery, pediatrics, digestive diseases, high-risk obstetrics, cancer, orthopedics and rehabilitation services. With a staff of approximately 11,000, the hospital is the largest employer in the Hamilton region. Its mission is to provide excellent health care for the people and communities it serves and to advance health care through education and research.

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Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre began as a hospital for Canadian war veterans and is now a fully affiliated teaching hospital of the University of Toronto. Today it has 1.2 million patient visits each year and has established itself across three campuses. It is home to Canada’s largest trauma centre, and has five strategic areas of focus: cancer; heart and vascular; high risk maternal and newborn; image guided brain therapies; and trauma. Part of Sunnybrook’s mission is to lead by discovery, innovation, teaching, and learning.

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Health Sciences North is located in Sudbury in northern Ontario and is committed to delivering the highest quality patient care, research, teaching and learning to their region and beyond. It is a network of integrated facilities and programs working together for the benefit of the patients, communities, physicians, researchers, staff and learners in the areas of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care. It has leading regional programs in the areas of cardiac care, oncology, nephrology, trauma, and rehabilitation.

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Key Insights
Some of the common threads running through all of the profiles:

• diversity in patient populations is a reality
• having IEHPs to reflect that diversity is vital
• understanding the role that culture plays in the workplace is essential for successful recruitment, integration and retention of IEHPs

This resource from the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks provides a detailed checklist in the process of attracting employees, hiring and integrating employees, and retaining employees:

Attracting Employees
1. Develop job postings
2. Advertise for candidates
3. Interview preparation
4. Interview and select

Hiring and Integrating Employees
5. Introduce the new employee to the workplace
6. Mentor new employees

Retaining Employees
7. Review communication tools
8. Develop cross-cultural policies
9. Develop corporate activities
10. Develop training plans

The following lessons will offer tips and advice on how to run staff training, orientation, and mentorship programs. We’ll also focus on the importance of cultivating community partnerships and encouraging volunteering.