Our Amalgamation with St. Peter's Hospital

Murray Minute - April 29, 2008

Integrating with St. Peter's Hospital to serve seniors better

"What about seniors?" It's a question that gets asked more and more often these days. Our health care system is challenged like never before and one of the fastest-growing, most vulnerable populations we serve is seniors and people who have chronic illnesses.

At Hamilton Health Sciences we have some outstanding services, units, staff members, physicians and volunteers who are dedicated to seniors' care. Over the years they have been strong advocates for their patients and clients, and have developed some key initiatives that have led to better outcomes and improved quality of life.

As we look to the future, we know that we must continue to put a priority on caring for seniors. We have to build on what we have already achieved in order to ensure that the health care system in this community is prepared for the tidal wave of aging baby boomers that will soon make tremendous demands on our hospitals and services.

Realizing this challenge, HHS and St. Peter's have spent the last year exploring how we could work together to enhance seniors' care in our region.

This afternoon I will join Donna Cripps, President and C.E.O. of St. Peter's Health System, to announce that St. Peter's Hospital on Maplewood Avenue is integrating with Hamilton Health Sciences. Our Boards of Directors have voted unanimously in favour of this amalgamation. We all see the tremendous opportunities that this partnership will provide -- opportunities for advancing seniors' health issues, improving seniors' care, and giving staff from both organizations more chances to share their skills and knowledge within a single, collaborative framework.

There will be a staff planning process that includes gathering feedback and consultation from various stakeholders. We are meeting with the staff members of the HHS seniors program to begin that process and to clarify for them that there will be no job losses. In fact, our hope is that this integration will help us recruit and retain more staff who share our vision for building a stronger, system-wide approach to seniors' care.

The new combined program will be led by Donna Cripps, who will take on the executive leadership role for seniors' care and rehabilitation across HHS while continuing to serve as President of St. Peter's.

More detailed information on the integration is provided in the attached news release. We will also be telling you more in future issues of Insider.

"Access to the Best Care" is the focus of our ongoing clinical realignment at HHS. I think this new alliance with St. Peter's is yet another step in the right direction. It will help to secure access to care for seniors in the years to come. It will also ensure that the best practices of our two organizations will be shared and embraced.

Murray