It all boils down to teamwork.
That was the message that Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH) chief executive officer Carmine Stumpo made clear during a presentation to Simcoe County council on Tuesday morning on behalf of the Simcoe County Hospital Alliance (SCHA).
The SCHA is comprised of Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie, OSMH, Waypoint Centre for Mental Health in Penetanguishene, Georgian Bay General Hospital in Midland, Collingwood General & Marine Hospital, Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston, and Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket.
“Individually, we all support the local health and well-being of our respective communities," Stumpo said. "Collectively, we support a network, a system of acute care that ensures patients have the services and supports they need."
The alliance aims to make a collective impact through various partnerships, he added.
In 2023, the SCHA saw 44,791 surgeries, 11,858 cardiac cases, 6,371 births, 96,444 cancer patients and 363,330 emergency department visits.
“We are talking tens of thousands of lives affected by the services and the interventions that exist within these acute-care facilities. That is supported in a regional format,” he added.
Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor James Leduc commended the alliance for its ongoing work.
“It is a tough time in health care right now and we need to be as supportive as possible," he said. "As we are growing as a county, our health-care systems have to grow with it and our hospitals are under pressure to service our residents. As you can see from some of the numbers … they do a great job with the resources they have."
Orillia Coun. Jay Fallis said the presentation “really drove home the notion that hospitals and this group are the lifeblood of the community.”
Fallis also asked Stump what he believed will be the biggest challenge facing the hospital network over the next few decades, as well as wondering what the county should be turning its focus to for the future.
Stumpo said he and his fellow hospital officials are scheduled to attend a session where they will receive information from experts at the University of Toronto, who have been forecasting health-care needs into the next 25 years.
Stumpo also said he recently had the opportunity to speak with the president of the Ontario Hospital Association, who was receiving a sneak peak of what those forecasts entail.
“The word that was texted to him was ‘terrifying.' I think the burden of health and illness in our communities is going to grow," Stumpo responded. "When you look at the demographics and you superimpose all of the successes of modern technology in health, it means we are treating more people for longer.
“Managing the health needs is the biggest challenge and that’s why investing at all levels in terms of our energy both in the community and in the hospitals … but we are not well-positioned to keep pace with growth, and I think that would be our No. 1 challenge going forward.”
Not only is the hospital alliance concerned with the delivery of health care, but its members serve as some of the largest employers in the county with around 12,500 employees, almost 2,000 physicians, some 1,300 volunteers and more than $1 billion in salaries and wages.
“We are an economic driver in each and every one of our communities," Stumpo said.
As for how they achieve that collective impact? Well, Stumpo said there are several important partnerships between hospitals, pointing to the Regional Acute Mental Services as one of the many ways the alliance works together.
“We have many services where as acute care hospitals they work together to ensure that patients receive the care they need. In this circumstance, we have Soldiers', RVH and Waypoint providing access to acute in-patient mental health for those individuals that require it. We ensure the entire county is well served by that,” he said.
But partnerships between hospitals don’t end at services and health-care delivery, he added, noting they also partner on research and innovation projects.
An example of that is a project between Southlake and Stevenson Memorial, Stumpo said.
“Every hospital is looking at deploying electronic medical records. These are very large IT projects and every hospital works with partners to deliver that and create the systems that are both effective and efficient,” he said.
Looking beyond how the individual hospitals work together — which Stumpo called “horizontal integration across the hospital system” — the alliance is also emerging in its role in “vertical integration,” which means hospitals working with all sectors in the health-care continuum.
That includes acute and primary care, community support services, mental health services and housing, he explained.
“All of these … have a very strong municipal representation. That’s all achieved in the work we do in our Ontario Health Teams,” Stumpo said. “Every hospital in the alliance is playing a leadership role in how we integrate care. At Soldiers', we are pleased to be one of the 12 accelerated Ontario Health Teams, so we are really looking at how we drive this innovative model in Ontario."
Stumpo said hospital officials know the health-care needs in their communities are increasing, the population is growing and the burden of illness is growing, which means they need to be thinking smarter about how to integrate those services.
“It’s through that vertical integration and cross-sectors that really supports that well,” said Stumpo, noting the county is one of those important partners.
He later pointed to a few projects that local hospitals have been able to move forward with due to county funding, including X-ray investments in Midland, new PET-CT machines at Southlake and RVH, as well as new breast imaging equipment at the Barrie hospital.
