The Change Foundation announces 20 Faces of Change Awards winners

TORONTO, ON – March 9, 2015 – The Change Foundation is delighted to announce the winners of their 20 Faces of Change Awards, an award created to honour those who have inspired positive changes in Ontario's health care system. Recipients were recognized at The Change Foundation's Capstone Summit and 20th Anniversary Celebration at the Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre Hotel in Toronto.

"The individuals and teams we honoured at our 20 Faces of Change Awards have made outstanding contributions to patient and family-centred care in the province's health care system," said Cathy Fooks, CEO of The Change Foundation. "Their hard work, innovation and influence have had a true and meaningful impact on health care services and delivery for all Ontarians."

Launched last November, the 20 Faces of Change Awards campaign sought nominations of patients, caregivers, health care leaders and practitioners, family members, community members, volunteers, and staff that have contributed to improvements in patient- and family-focused care. The 20 recipients were chosen by a specially appointed Selection Committee of ten health care leaders who understand the importance and impact of patient engagement, and who could provide a third-party and neutral review of all the applications.

"It's remarkable to see how much meaningful patient engagement is happening across Ontario," said Doug Sinclair, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at St. Michael's Hospital, Change Foundation Board member, and Chair of the 20 Faces of Change Selection Committee. "Those of us who work in the health care system often hear about its challenges. Being a part of this awards process really illuminated the innovative, patient-driven work that is possible when people come together."

The men and women on the 20 Faces of Change Selection Committee sorted through over 80 nominations from a diverse range of teams, individuals and organizations, submitted from all across Ontario. Nominations were evaluated for their impact at the community, organizational or provincial level based on each nominee's innovation, excellence, quality improvement, and influence.

The winners of the 20 Faces of Change Awards are:

Chirgwin Family and Tamara Dube-Clarke
Collaborating with Patient and Family Partnered Care Coordinator, Tamara Dube-Clarke, the Chirgwin family of North Bay, Ontario created a video called "Andy's Story" to introduce their (now deceased) father's health care providers to the man he was before his Alzheimer's diagnosis. The video has since been viewed over 1,500 times on YouTube, and is used at the North Bay Regional Health Centre and in the broader health care community as a training tool.

Crystal Chin
Through her various roles at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Health Quality Ontario, The Change Foundation and Patients Canada, Crystal Chin has made significant contributions to improving health care services for patients, caregivers and their families by delivering the message that their voice must be heard for substantive improvements in care to be made.

Ed Kucharski, MD, Family Physician at the Sherbourne Health Centre; Regional Primary Care Lead, Toronto Regional Cancer Program South
Taking a "patient engagement in action" approach to his medical practice, Ed Kucharski has worked with the Canadian Cancer Society and Rainbow Health Ontario to bring cancer screening and cancer screening awareness to some of Toronto's hardest to reach populations.

Eleanor Rivoire, Former Executive Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive, Kingston General Hospital
The driving force behind Kingston General Hospital's Patient and Family-Centred Care (PFCC) program, Eleanor Rivoire led the charge to ensure that the four PFCC principles - Dignity and Respect, Information Sharing, Participation and Collaboration - were incorporated into all aspects of hospital life, establishing the organization as a worldwide leader in patient-centred care.

Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital: Client and Family Centred Care Simulation Development Team
The Client and Family Centred Care Simulation Development Team at Holland Bloorview led the development of simulation scenarios that provide employees and students meaningful hands-on learning about how to embed client and family centred care (CFCC) into their daily practice. The simulation scenarios are innovative teaching tools that help ensure CFCC remains at the heart of everything Holland Bloorview does.

Integrated Comprehensive Care Team: St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
A joint initiative between two hospitals, a home care agency and community partners, the Integrated Comprehensive Care Team at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton developed innovative clinical care pathways to follow patient journeys across hospital and home care, resulting in improved care quality, increased patient satisfaction, and reduced costs per medical case.

Jessica Saunders, Client and Community Relations Coordinator, St. Joseph's Care Group, Thunder Bay
As part of the St. Joseph's Care Group's 2012-2015 Strategic Plan, Jessica Saunders of Thunder Bay, Ontario led a committee of clients, family members and staff in shifting the culture of a large, complex organization, and developing and establishing a Model of Client-Centred Care.

Mount Sinai Hospital's Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Strategy
Making Geriatrics a core strategic priority through the implementation of its Acute Care for Elders Strategy in 2010, Mount Sinai Hospital has since implemented a series of evidence-informed, elder-friendly interventions to ensure the best patient experience possible at their organization.

Northumberland PATH Partnership
Created in 2012, the Northumberland Partners Advancing Transitions in Healthcare (PATH) project is a made-in-Ontario, patient-driven health care initiative, focused on listening and learning from patient experiences to make changes in the local health care system to better meet the needs and improve experiences of seniors living with chronic health conditions.

Pamela Catton, MD, and Audrey Jusko Friedman of the Patient and Family Education and Cancer Survivorship, University Health Network
Creators of the Patient and Family Education Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and across university network hospitals, Pamela Catton (now deceased) and Audrey Jusko Friedman of Toronto, Ontario are pioneers in the field of patient education and have brought national recognition to the need for high-quality, patient-centred education tools that are based on best practices and accessible to consumers.

Partners in Care Roadmap Strategy Development Team, University Health Network (UHN)
Dedicated to making changes that enhance patient-centred care, the Partners in Care (PIC) Roadmap Strategy Development Team at the University Health Network (UHN) created the PIC Roadmap, an aspirational two-year plan to advance Patient-Centred Care at UHN.

Patients' Advisory Council: North East Toronto Health Link
The Patients' Advisory Council at the North East Toronto Health Link has worked to embed the patient and caregiver voice into its clinical program, since the inception of the Health Link in 2013. Their impact is already spreading – their co-designed coordinated care plan has helped inform the provincial coordinated care plan.

Patients Canada
Since 2011, Patients Canada has been a trailblazer in bringing forward patient and caregiver experiences to the health care system. Through their patient-focused Key Performance Targets (KPTs) system, the organization has helped multiple health care organizations to measure and improve the patient experience, allowing for a concrete assessment of the system's movement towards patient and family-centred care.

Patricia Mackey, Patient Advisor & Inaugural Member of the Patient and Family Advisory Council, North York General Hospital
Sharing her personal health care journey and experiences through a series of YouTube videos, Patricia Mackey (now deceased) helped further the culture of patient- and family-centred care at North York General Hospital, delivering a firsthand account to patients and families that "palliative care is about finding energy and joy in your day – not focusing on the illness."

Renal Patient Website Team, London Health Sciences Centre
After months of consultations with patients, family members and caregivers, the Renal Patient Website Team at the London Health Sciences Centre created a website that enables people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to access educational resources to assist them through their treatment journey.

Sara Shearkhani, Caregiver; Co-founder, Family Caregivers Voice
Sara Shearkhani of Toronto is the co-founder of a caregiver-led group, Family Caregivers Voice, which is committed to educating family caregivers on their journey and promoting self-advocacy. She is also the Lead for Patient and Community Engagement Research (PaCER) Toronto, a branch of PaCER designed to train patients and caregivers as researchers, and dedicated to taking patient/caregiver engagement in the health care system to another level.

Stacey Daub, CEO, Toronto Central Community Care Access Centre
In addition to redesigning the Toronto Central Community Care Access Centre from the client's point of view, Stacey Daub has led multiple initiatives that put clients at the centre and in control of their own health care, including Changing the Conversation, the Integrated Client Care Program, and Home First.

The Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation
Since 2011, the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation has helped over 2,000 families with Cancer Coaching, a "by the community, for the community" service providing those whose lives have been touched by cancer with access to an accredited health professional who delivers valuable information, support, and guidance through every stage of their diagnosis.

The South East Toronto Family Health Team and Dr. Thuy-Nga Pham
The South East Toronto Family Health Team was one of the first Family Health Teams to establish a Patient Advisory Council to help shape its patient care delivery, and the first site in Ontario to implement a primary care Virtual Ward – a feat championed by Lead Physician, Dr. Thuy-Nga Pham.

Toronto East General Hospital
Since launching their Patient Video program in 2011, the Toronto East General Hospital has collected over 100 unique patient experiences, each contributing to the implementation of positive patient-centred change at the organization.

Full biographies for the 20 Faces of Change Awards recipients can be found at www.20FacesOfChange.com.

An agenda for The Change Foundation's 2-Day Capstone Summit can be found at www.changefoundation.com.

About The Change Foundation
The Change Foundation is an independent health care think tank, intent on changing the debate, the practice, and the health care experience in Ontario. We lead and leverage research, policy analysis, service redesign/quality improvement projects, and public engagement to achieve our strategic goal: to improve people's health care experience as they move in, out of, and across the health care system over time. The Change Foundation is celebrating our 20th anniversary in 2015.