Help us shape the future for children with disabilities and their families

2008-09: A year of accomplishment and new aspirations

The last year and a half at Bloorview Kids Rehab has been filled with accomplishments and new aspirations, despite the significant financial challenges we have faced globally.

As you will see in our 2008-2009 Annual Report - Small Wonder, Bloorview has continued to make important strides in our efforts to improve the lives of children with disabilities, using the Strategic Plan Infinite Possibilities 2007-2012 as our guide.  Some of these advances include:

• Recruitment of five top clinical scientists in the areas of participation and child development,
• Attracting provincial and federal government investments to help us enhance the output and impact of research,
• Hosting an educational retreat to inform the development of a strategic plan for education,
• Continuing to make improving quality and patient safety a top priority at Bloorview,
• Carving new paths in e-health technology by creating an electronic medical record, and
• Advocating for affordable housing for children with disabilities and their families

To track our overall performance, we have rated our performance in a report card called How we measure up. The indicators found in the report were ranked by a committee of external reviewers made up of community partners, stakeholders, board advisors and family members.  As we continue in our efforts to create a world of possibilities for kids with disabilities using Infinite Possibilitiesas our guide, we will track our performance using this scorecard.

To build our clinical and research leadership, Bloorview announced the recruitment of five top clinical social scientists in the areas of participation and child development.  By furthering our study of community barriers facing children and their families and innovative new treatments, we aim to enhance and extend our scope to improve the quality of life for children provincially, nationally and internationally by discovering new approaches that will quickly translate to the frontlines of care.

Bloorview benefited from a number of provincial and federal government investments in our scientists this year, helping us to enhance the output and impact of research. Dr. Gillian King received a grant from Bright Futures for Kids with Disabilities, a partnership between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Bloorview Children’s Hospital Foundation. Her research is focused on the environmental factors that enhance social inclusion for youth who rely on life-support technologies like ventilators and those who don’t speak.

Tom Chau, who leads a team of scientists developing assistive technologies, was one of the recipients to receive an Early Researcher Award grant from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, as well as a $1.65 million grant from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council to bring in PhD students for hospital based disability research and exposure to the business side of bringing technologies to market.

Improving quality and patient safety continues to be a top priority at Bloorview. Key highlights from our work in this area over the past year include streamlining the process of how children are transferred from SickKids to Bloorview’s inpatient rehabilitation. As a result, we reduced medically-unnecessary days, also known as Alternative Level of Care days, in SickKids’ brain-injury trauma unit by more than 70 per cent. In addition, we are one of the first rehab and complex continuing care settings to introduce unit-dose medication distribution. This is a key patient safety initiative for our inpatient units.

Bloorview has put a strong emphasis on developing an Electronic Medical Record (EMR). This year, we took a leap forward in developing a fully electronic customized Patient Care System (PCS) for our inpatient areas that will help health-care providers improve communication, patient safety and evaluate care. In 2009, we will extend this work into our outpatient areas.

As part of our ongoing efforts to influence public policy, we have been working to raise awareness of affordable and accessible housing needs of our families. We were delighted that the City of Toronto identified families with children with disabilities as a priority group in their ten-year affordable housing plan. The move marks a significant stride forward in providing accessible and affordable housing to families who have traditionally been underserved.

 

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