Strategic Plan

Welcome to Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC). We are honoured that you have chosen to trust us to provide you with excellent and safe care in a culturally sensitive manner during your health care journey. 

At SLMHC, our physicians, staff, management, and especially the Board of Directors want to ensure that you experience the best possible care from a service perspective. Our aim is to ensure “Excellence Every Time” when you are interacting with our team.

In alignment with our mission, vision, and values, we are pleased to present our 2019-2022 Strategic Plan.

Among the Anishinaabe people, the teachings of the Seven Grandfathers provide guidance on human conduct with others and these teachings have been shared widely throughout our organization. As we reflected upon the 2019-2022 Strategic Plan, it was evident that the Seven Grandfathers teachings of human conduct aligned with the behaviours necessary to achieve the goals we had set. Subsequently, within this Strategic Plan document, we have outlined the Seven Grandfathers teachings, our new Strategic Pillar Goals, and respectfully illustrated how they intersect.

The creation of the plan would not have been possible without the valuable input provided by our patients and their families, our communities and our partners. We are extremely appreciative to each of you for participating in this important process.

Determining where we are going as an organization also requires us to reflect on where we have been, such as looking at our successes and examining our failures and challenges. This method provides us with an avenue to improve our services and to continue to strive for excellence. With feedback and input from our communities, patients, clients, etc., SLMHC is able to look at new and innovative ways to improve health care for all people in our region.

As our teams begin to focus and create specific goals to achieve the objectives of this strategic plan, we encourage you to actively engage with us. By working together, we will be able to achieve health care services closer to home. We hope your experience with the care and services at SLMHC is exceptional.

Miigwech,

Sadie Maxwell, SLMHC Board Chair

Heather Lee, President and CEO

Background

Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) is located in Sioux Lookout, in Northwestern Ontario and is part of the North West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN 14). SLMHC’s 140,000 sq. ft. hospital construction was completed in November 2010 and currently supports a total of 60 acute care in-patient beds. In addition, the organization also operates 20 long term care beds located off-campus at the William A. George Extended Care facility.

SLMHC is an innovative and progressive health care centre. SLMHC has been awarded Accreditation with Exemplary Standing; Accreditation Canada’s highest standing, in October 2017. They provide high quality health care, which is reflective of their client’s culture and needs, across a broad range of inpatient and outpatient services. 

SLMHC provides health services to all residents within Sioux Lookout and the surrounding area, including the Nishnawbe-Aski communities north of Sioux Lookout, the Treaty #3 community of Lac Seul First Nation, and residents of Pickle Lake and Savant Lake. The SLMHC catchment area has a population base of 30,000 people living in Sioux Lookout and 28 northern communities. Except for Sioux Lookout and 3 proximate communities, the service area is vast, remote and isolated. It covers an area of 385,000 square kilometres, representing nearly one third of Ontario’s land mass. 

SLMHC noted that they are the hub for inpatient and outpatient hospital services and serve a population of more than 85% First Nations people. With both a growing and aging population spread across a vast geography in Northwestern Ontario, the organization has experienced continuously increasing volumes and acuity of clients over the last 8 years amidst an ever changing health care environment. 

The culture of the people served is extremely important at SLMHC. Since the closing of the Sioux Lookout General Hospital and the Sioux Lookout Zone Hospital (formerly known as the First Nation’s hospital) and the subsequent opening of the SLMHC in 2010, the organization has continued to integrate the Traditional Healing Medicine Foods and Support program to ensure it is woven into all aspects of the organization and the patient experience. Organizational alignment, cultural alignment and accountability are vital to the successful delivery of culturally appropriate health care that reflects high-quality and value-based outcomes.

In association with provincial, regional and local initiatives for health service delivery, SLMHC has a significant opportunity to collaborate across the broader health sector as well as with other sectors such as education and housing. This alignment is vital to the future of SLMHC to ensure that existing and potential new services are sustainable and continue to meet the needs of the population served. 

Focusing on the people served, the staff and physicians who provide service at SLMHC and partner organizations is a key to ensuring that clients receive exceptional care. SLMHC has made a commitment to “Excellence Every Time” meaning that excellence in service is an expectation at every encounter. With the support of professional coaching, SLMHC leaders have implemented measures to elevate and sustain performance across the organization. It is imperative to SLMHC that this focus continues and be integrated into future plans. There is also a commitment to facilitate ongoing performance improvements where zero-harm becomes the goal and the organization is empowered to transform to a culture of safety. 

This Strategic Planning process – led by Studer Group/Huron coaches – was designed to incorporate the existing strengths of the organization, build on its unique population and services provided, and bring SLMHC into an era in which SLMHC is truly a Centre of Excellence for First Nations and northern health care and an example for the Province of Ontario and beyond.

With a commitment to the existing Mission, Vision, and Values, Studer Group/Huron completed a comprehensive High Reliability Organization (HRO) assessment as well as strategic planning internal and external stakeholder interviews to help SLMHC chart the desired course over the next three to five years. The HRO assessment and these interviews were vetted with the Board of Directors and organizational executives and department leaders as strategic goals came into focus. The following strategic goals are presented as a road-map for a future of clinical and service excellence for a successful health care organization continually focused on innovation and partnerships throughout the region.

The Studer Group/Huron coaches are indebted to everyone at SLMHC and the communities who participated in this project. We will continue to be involved as these organizational strategic goals are cascaded to all leaders in the organization.