March 2017 –

You have no doubt noted in my blogs that I often provide an update on the initiatives ARH is undertaking in response to the needs of our community, staff, and partners in delivery of exemplary care.

“Change was once episodic, now change is Constant”.

The WHY of change at Arnprior Regional Health can be found when we refer to our Vision, Mission, Values and Strategic Goals.  These foundational statements are also subject to change when the Board of Directors completes a strategic plan.  In the fall of 2016 we invited many partners, community members, staff and volunteers to a strategic planning retreat.  At this session we had an open discussion about what we are doing well at ARH and what we should be doing better.   This discussion  led to a change in our mission and vision statement.  Frankly, our vision statement, what we want to try and achieve, was no longer relevant, and our mission statement did not accurately reflect what we do.

In June at our Annual General Meeting we will reveal a new vision and mission statement for Arnprior Regional Health.   We will be revealing

• A new aspirational vision statement
• A new inspirational mission statement

We are committed to ensuring everyone understands the new vision and mission statement as these will influence how individuals who work at ARH make a contribution to ARH, it will signify new thrusts in our partnerships with other health service providers and, most importantly, how we can contribute to the health care needs in our growing community.

Of note, there will be no change the values of Arnprior Regional Health.  Our values of Honesty, Accountability, Respect and Teamwork have not changed.  They remain the under pinning of how we treat each other, our patients and our partners.  Our values which have been in place for almost 7 years are well known and upheld by our exemplary employees at ARH.  These values have been our foundation enabling us to improve staff engagement scores by more than 24% in seven years; in addition, our patient/resident/client satisfaction scores have continued to improve.

Grove Redevelopment

Finally I wanted to assure all of you that your efforts to advocate for additional licenses for the Grove Nursing Home are being heard in Queens Park.   We have collected almost 3000 post cards and the recently launched E-Petition has several hundred signatures.  More importantly your stories of why we need more long-term care beds are compelling.   Below is one story.   Please visit www.helpthegrovegrow.ca

“My father was at XX Retirement Home in Arnprior when he became ill, hospitalized and then needed long term care. We wanted him to go to the Grove because my two sisters and I and other close family and friends live in the Arnprior area. However the wait time to get into the Grove was about a year. When the hospital could no longer keep him, we were forced to send him to Ottawa to XX where he was very unhappy and xxxxxx as well as with the long distance drive to visit him. As a result, it was a very sad ending to his wonderful life and very depressing for the family to watch him go in such a distant place.”