Vancouver Leaders’ Forum full of surprises

Close to 200 Vancouver Acute and Community leaders attended yesterday’s Vancouver Leaders’ Forum, either in person or via webcast, where the topic of how engagement advances outcomes was discussed. (See end of article for link to the webcast.)

One Vancouver News and the year in review

The One Vancouver News anchors in action

The forum was full of surprises, the first of which involved the premiere of the One Vancouver News network with COOs Laura Case and Vivian Eliopoulos highlighting the past year’s successful outcomes in a fun and innovative format.

The key strategic priority of mitigating demand and improving capacity for patients and clients through the reduction of admissions, wait times for care, and managing increasing volumes through improved flow were all highlighted with some exceptional results.

ED Acute admissions were down by 4 per cent, which means that every day we have a bed available for 22 more patients in need. With residential care admissions down by 11 per cent and Acute referrals to residential care down by 19 per cent, that translates into over 160 people a year able to receive the appropriate level of care at home.

As Vivian Eliopoulos, COO for Vancouver Acute, said, “All of this, in turn, means that more people who don’t need to be in an acute care setting or in residential care are in their own homes, receiving the appropriate level of care in the appropriate setting.  Due to this, the people who really need that hospital or residential care bed have better access to it.”

Another huge success was around Out-Patient Psychiatry wait times dropping by 350 per cent, which means the patient can get into needed group therapy within a few days rather than weeks or months.

Another big success was around youth access increasing by 300 per cent at Raven Song Primary Care Clinic.

Jane Porter and Lori Korchinski emceeing the event

As Laura Case, COO for Vancouver Community, pointed out, “All these stats together mean we are providing more timely access to care for our patients and clients, ensuring they get the care they need when they need it.”

Vivian Eliopoulos followed this up by saying, “These successes are not the result of any one team – It’s about One Vancouver working together to improve service along the entire continuum of our patients and clients’ journeys.”

The next surprise involved the real Global news crew giving a shout-out to their new ‘newscast competitors’.

‘Thank you for being a friend’ – The BWB Panel

VLF’s BWB, aka Best Work Buddies, panel. From left: Cori Ross, Ron Van Halen, Misty Bath and Cherlyn Cortes

Research (and surveys such as Gallup) shows that you’re more likely to be engaged and achieve more at work if you have strong connections to one or more team members. This theory was put to the test with our panel of Best Work Buddies, aka BWBs, comprised of Misty Bath and Cherlyn Cortes as well as Ron Van Halen and Cori Ross talking about friendship, engagement and work success.

At that point, the forum was turned over to participants who shared many stories of who their BWB was and how having such rich connections at work have helped them achieve success.

Webcast: See for yourself

Overall, the forum seemed to be enjoyed by all, but don’t take our word for it. See for yourself how the forum shaped up and view the surprises along the way.

• View the webcast by clicking on this link  – Vancouver Leaders’ Forum – April 2015*

*If the Silverlight player doesn’t start automatically, right-click on the puzzle icon and choose Run Plugin.