Karin Olson, Chief Operating Officer – Coastal, updates staff at LGH on projects and priorities at one of the two all staff forum sessions in the CST Hub.

ICYMI: Recap of LGH All Staff Forum

The 2017 Coastal All Staff Forums kicked off at Lions Gate Hospital last week with COO Karin Olson providing updates to North Shore staff and physicians on a number of topics affecting LGH, including CST, patient access and flow, My VCH survey and the return of the Christmas Craft Fair.

Green is our colour

The collective work of physicians and staff  – across all professionals – continues to have a positive impact on patients across the North Shore.

Having patients backed up across the hospital is now far less common. In fact, the norm for having more patients than we have beds – the Over Capacity Protocol (OCP) – is now consistently green on our scorecard. A year ago, our OCP would show up as amber or red.

“Everyone is continuing to do a fantastic job pulling together as a team and we’re a model of success for other health organizations,” said Karin.

To illustrate how well teams in community, residential care and acute are working together to improve patient access and flow, Karin compared two days each a year apart – Oct. 5, 2016 and Oct. 5, 2017.

“On October 5th last year, our Long Length of Stay number was 51.  Yesterday, it was 25,” she said. “Our ED admits within 10 hours on this day last year was 47%. This year it’s 93%.”

CST Go-Live – when is it?

As staff and physicians are aware, Go-Live at VCH-Coastal (LGH campus, plus Whistler, Pemberton and Squamish) is now going to be in early 2018 due to the clinical validation and testing of the new clinical information system taking longer than anticipated.

“We’ll be able to set a realistic go-live date after the clinical validation work has been completed,” said Karin. “The validation work is meant to help identify any gaps in the system or problems with workflows, so it doesn’t make sense to set a firm go-live date until that important work is complete. So stay tuned.”

Formal training will begin in January, with the first Go-Live to take place as soon as possible after training is completed.

“A big thank you to all of you who have been participating in clinical validation – and a thank you to your managers,” said Karin. “I know it takes time out of your clinical work to do the validation, but it one of the most important ways to ensure we have a system that works for us.”

SUDs – but not the beer kind

In the meantime, CST Coastal is now focusing its efforts to support each and every clinical area prepare for go live with the introduction of SUD, or specialty, unit or department.

Each clinical manager or lead will receive a weekly SUD work package designed just for their area. The work packages will be very practical. Every activity will be mapped out and then reported out weekly.

“This way, we’ll be able to stay on top of all the work we need to do to go live,” said Karin. “And, we are also starting to track staff completion of the CST e-privacy module that is on the new Learning Hub. Our target is to have all staff complete the CST e-privacy module by November 30.  This e-learning module is mandatory. You must complete it in order to get access to CST.”

For more information about CST Coastal, click here.

My VCH survey

Click here to find out more information on next steps. See also related story on Karin Olson’s marathon baking session for units or departments that hit the 75% or more completion mark.

Return of the Christmas Craft Fair

After a brief hiatus, the popular LGH Christmas Craft Fair is making a comeback. It is scheduled for Friday, November 24th from 9 am to 4 pm in the LGH gym. Stay tuned for more details.

Upcoming All Staff Forums

Friday, October 20, 2017 

  • Whistler  – WHCC Multipurpose Room 10 am to 11
  •  Squamish – SGH boardroom 1 to 2 pm

Friday, October 27, 2017

  • Powell River – PRGH cafeteria noon to 1 pm

Pemberton – Date TBD.