Strategic Plan
Welcome to Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC), where our goal is to provide culturally appropriate care in a safe manner.
Our staff, physicians, management, and Board of Directors want to ensure your health care journey with SLMHC provides you, the patient, the best possible care. While we experience numerous challenges within the sector, we continue to strive for “Excellence Every Time”.
In alignment with our mission, vision, and values, we present our 2025-2028 Strategic Plan.
Our strategic pillars include: Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion; Mental Health & Addictions; Future Planning, Infrastructure & Growth; Investing in Our People; High Quality Patient Experience & Care; Innovation/Technology – Digital Transformation; and External Partnerships.
The goals identified under each pillar were developed through our feedback process, and aligns with the service improvements we require in our region to bring care closer to home for the people we serve which includes building strategy to invest in our people.
Our team has made a commitment to achieving these goals and in order to achieve these objectives, we will continue to foster good working relations with our partners that will allow us to work towards providing the best care possible, while enhancing services to the region.
Miigwech,
Thank you,
Sadie Maxwell, SLMHC Board Chair
Dean Osmond, President and CEO
Background
Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) is located in Sioux Lookout, in Northwestern Ontario, and is part of Ontario Health North West. SLMHC’s 140,000 sq. ft. hospital construction was completed in November 2010 and currently supports a total of 70 acute care in-patient beds. In addition, the organization also operates 21 Long-Term Care beds located in the William A. George Extended Care Facility.
SLMHC is an innovative and progressive health care centre. SLMHC has been awarded Accreditation Standing in October 2022. 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 kilometers, 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.
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.
Strategic Pillars
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI)
- Anti-racism Campaign
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Review Committee
- United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDRIP)
- Sustainable Indigenous Recruitment and Retention
- Trauma Informed Care Training
- EDI Hospital-Wide Policy Review Process
Mental Health & Addictions
- Schedule 1 Steering Committee
- Expansion of Rapid Access Addictions Medicine Clinic
- Urgent Psychiatry Services
- Investigate In-Patient Addiction Treatment Facility
- Discussion re: Partnering with Established Treatment Centres
- Dedicated Mental Health Counsellor in Emergency Department (ED)
Future Planning, Infrastructure & Growth
- Infrastructure & Growth
– Long-Term Care Beds
– Schedule 1 Beds
– Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
– Expand Specialist Services
– Intensive Care Unit Beds
– Phase 2 of ED Renovations
- Sustainability
– Staffing, Health Human Resources
– Financial Stability
– Physicians
Investing In Our People
- Staff Experience
- Health Human Resources
- Financial Incentives / Taxation Exempt
- Leadership Development for Staff / Succession Planning
- Promote Positive Work Environment and Culture
- Indigenous Midwifery Supports
High Quality Patient Experience & Care
Patient Experience
- Best Practices – Quality of Care, Patient-Centered, Patient Safety
- Patient Navigator
- Indigenous Transitions Facilitator
- Accreditation for Indigenous Services in Healthcare
- Best Practice Spotlight Organization
- Patient and Family Advisor
- Communications Strategy: Podcast & Newsletter
- Clinical Scholar
Innovation / Technology – Digital Transformation
- Ontario Health Team Digital Project
- Meditech Expansion
- Ocean E-Referral Expansion
- Innovative Models of Radiology Services
- Artificial Intelligence Exploratory Options: Self-Registration Kiosk
- Innovative Interpreter Services
External Partnerships
- Advocacy – Affordable / Equitable Housing
- Social Determinants of Health
- Relationship / Partnerships
- Tribal Councils, Sioux Lookout First Nation Health Authority (SLFNHA), Municipality, Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB), Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) University, Nourish, High School, Ontario Health Team’s, Seven Generations, Social Justice & Leadership, Police Services, etc.