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Holland Bloorview recognized for compassionate care

TORONTO, ONT. (June 26, 2017) Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital has been recognized as the first Canadian recipient of the 2017 Schwartz Center’s Corman IMPACT Honors. The award puts the spotlight on Holland Bloorview for its trailblazing, system-wide approach to improving compassionate and collaborative care for clients, families, and staff.

The Corman IMPACT (Innovative Member Programs Advancing Compassion and Teamwork) Honors celebrate health care organizations across North America that make a transformational impact through programs and services to improve compassionate and collaborative care. Over the past year, Holland Bloorview implemented five strategic and pioneering initiatives, including:

  • Interprofessional orientation: Use of simulation and team-building techniques for staff to become fully immersed in collaborative and compassionate team practice.
  • Schwartz Rounds®: Interprofessional meetings where clinicians, health care professionals, and staff talk about the social and emotional aspects of providing care to strengthen relationships, compassion, and support among each other.
  • Strengths-based leadership and management: Training program that works to enhance nurses’ work-life environment.
  • Arts-based narrative nursing research initiative: A promising method to enhance nursing empathy for excellent patient care and a dynamic nursing culture.
  • Walk in their Shoes: A one-week ‘shadowing’ initiative intended to bring the lived experience of front-line clinicians to senior leadership.

“Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital is thrilled to be recognized by the Schwartz Center for our transformational impact on staff, patients, and their families,” says Diane Savage, vice-president, programs and services at Holland Bloorview. “Our staff comes to work each day committed to delivering the best care possible for kids and youth with a disability and their families. With a shared vison of improving the care experience for patients, families and staff, we established five key initiatives. Each of them aims to enhance the client and family experience, instill our values of client- and family-centred care, and ensure a strong culture that puts collaboration and compassion at the cornerstone of all that we do. Together, we can truly create the most meaningful and healthy future for all kids, youth and their families.”

"We believe that leading by example is the most effective way to inspire others," says Ruth Kilduff, registered nurse, and chair of the Schwartz Center board of directors. "The fact that a Canadian hospital is among our inaugural honorees is a testament to how important a compassionate caregiver-patient relationship is to us all, regardless of where you receive your care. Holland Bloorview’s multi-pronged program casts a system-wide approach toward embedding compassionate, collaborative care throughout clinical practice and beyond, representing a truly innovative approach to embedding values into delivery of care.”

Holland Bloorview was recognized alongside Danbury Hospital, Danbury, Connecticut, and Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center, Baldwin Park, California, during the Schwartz Center’s Compassion in Action Healthcare Conference in Boston on Sunday, June 25.

To learn more about the Corman IMPACT Award, please visit compassioninactionconference.org.

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About Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital is Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation hospital. We focus on improving the lives of kids with disabilities, kids needing rehabilitation after illness or trauma and kids whose medical complexity requires specialized care. We serve nearly 7,500 children and youth annually accounting for over 1,000 unique diagnoses. The hospital is a global leader in childhood disability research, teaching, and client and family-centred care. For more information, visit www.hollandbloorview.ca.

About Schwartz Center®

Through national and international partnerships, the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare’s coalition of caregivers, patients, families and other leaders work together to make compassion a vital element in every aspect of healthcare. We provide innovative educational and training opportunities for caregivers that are supported by cutting-edge research in neuroscience and communication. We are dedicated to advancing policies that inspire and help healthcare organizations create an environment that fosters a culture of healing and well-being for patients and clinicians.

The Schwartz Center is an independent, non-profit organization, with 425 healthcare members in the U.S. and Canada, supporting 200,000 healthcare professionals each year. In partnership with the Point of Care Foundation, more than 140 hospitals, hospices and other healthcare organizations conduct the innovativeSchwartz Rounds™ program in the United Kingdom, which unites caregivers from a range of disciplines to share experiences, learn from each other and focus on the human dimension of medicine.

For more information, please contact:

Sasha Babakhanova, Communications Associate

Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

(416) 425-6220 ext. 6263

ababakhanova@hollandbloorview.ca