Follow along as we share the stories of those who are making a remarkable impact on SHN and its community in a five-part series focused on health care trends across Scarborough and the province.
Scarborough Health Network’s (SHN) Strategic Plan 2024-2029 builds upon the commitments, achievements, and progress we have made since our inception, and elevates our role in providing a more integrated healthcare system for Scarborough.
Built on key sets of population and health data that identify trends across Scarborough and Ontario, five directions will drive us forward to better serve the 850,000 patients across Scarborough and beyond, including System Integration and Transformation; Population Health and Equity; Research and Education; People and Culture; and Quality and Patient Safety.
Meet some of the compassionate team members in our hospital community who are dedicated to going beyond our walls, to break barriers and improve lives through exceptional care.
Meet Amanda Firth, People and Culture
In today’s healthcare environment, trained professionals are in high demand and short supply. Amanda, manager for Critical Care, knows first-hand how important it is to optimize staffing to provide safe and high-quality care.
SHN’s investment in best-in-class health human resources technology enables us to efficiently and effectively manage our people and optimize our human resources to better support our teams—and, by extension, our patients and their families.
New predictive analytics and artificial intelligence technology will help us forecast patient volumes and adjust staffing accordingly, as well as automate tasks such as documentation to reduce staff and physician burnout.
Strategic Direction: People and Culture
SHN is recruiting, retaining, and supporting our exceptional people and cultivate a culture of inclusion.
Our success comes from the contributions of our staff, physicians, researchers, and volunteers. We are committed to supporting them, empowering them, and helping them thrive in the workplace of the future. We will equip our people with the skills and resources to excel in their work, reinforce a culture of safety, inclusion, and wellness across our teams; and use technology to better support our people in delivering the safest, highest quality care.
Meet SHN’s Clinical Teams
SHN is where the newest technology meets the highest patient safety standards. Robotic-assisted knee replacement surgery at our Orthopaedics Centre of Excellence enables our surgical team to perform surgery with greater precision, resulting in less trauma to the knee, a lower chance of infection, and a faster recovery time.
We are enhancing our Epic clinical information system to provide secure access to partner healthcare organizations for more integrated care; empower patients to access their records and self-schedule appointments using MyChart; implement disease-specific care pathways using the latest best practice evidence; and use artificial intelligence to predict and prevent adverse events like infections.
Optimizing technology and investing in our best-in-class hospital information system will take exceptional quality and patient safety to the next level.
Strategic Direction: Quality and Patient Safety
SHN is keeping quality care and patient safety at the core of everything we do.
We owe it to everyone to provide high quality care in culturally, physically, and mentally safe spaces. System integration will unlock new opportunities to elevate standards across the care continuum and meet the needs of our community.
SHN will reinforce clinical expertise through Centres of Excellence, apply innovative technologies to help our people and partners deliver quality care, and empower patients to play an active role in their health journey.
Meet Dr. Samir Grover, Executive Vice-President of Education
Dr. Grover leads SHN’s education and research portfolio, as well as our partnership with the University of Toronto in the development of the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health. He is also the inaugural Research Chair in Education at SHN Research Institute, focused on providing better healthcare through research that matters to Scarborough. With Scarborough’s incredible diversity—made up of 60% new Canadians and 75% visible minorities—our patient population often presents with more culturally prevalent conditions. This offers unique opportunities to better learn and understand a wide range of illnesses, treatments, and supports.
Dr. Grover will advance our education and research footprint, all with an eye toward improving patient outcomes in Scarborough. SHN is in a position like no other, to train the next generation of health professionals and impact healthcare services and outcomes through research and education.
Strategic Direction: Research and Education
SHN will uncover and pursue innovative new ways to address Scarborough’s most critical health needs.
We are creating new research and academic spaces in the heart of Scarborough to attract and train the best and brightest healthcare professionals, to deliver on the needs of our communities and support our Population Health and Equity objectives. We will expand our academic network of researchers and partners, focus our research and education efforts on patient and community needs, and evolve our organization to reflect the level of impact we want to achieve.
Meet Dr. Avnish Mehta, SHN’s Corporate Chief of Family Medicine
Dr. Mehta is SHN’s Corporate Chief of Family Medicine and the Medical Lead for the Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities, a Scarborough Ontario Health Team partner. Dr. Mehta’s vision for Scarborough is a healthier community with seamless and connected healthcare. In Scarborough, nearly 100,000 people are without access to a regular primary care provider, resulting in high numbers of emergency department visits for lower acuity conditions, and elderly patients presenting in declining health. Dr. Mehta is committed to implementing innovative models so that more patients have access to primary care, and expanding this access to residents outside hospital walls. Dr. Mehta and SHN are exploring new partnership models, creating on-site teams and clinics for primary health services, and building the education infrastructure with the University of Toronto Scarborough to train the next generation of diverse primary care doctors, right here in Scarborough.
Strategic Direction: System Integration and Transformation
SHN will work with partners to bring care closer to home with fewer handoffs.
Delivering patient-centric care means working with providers, Scarborough Ontario Health Team partners, and our communities to share expertise, information, and resources. We have the scale, digital capabilities, and network to play a leading role in this collaboration. With our partners, we will improve patient access to healthcare and social services in the most appropriate setting, and enable care journeys with seamless, safe transitions by improving existing and developing new models of care.
Meet Ellie Henry, Indigenous Patient Navigator at SHN
Meet SHN’s Indigenous Patient Navigator, Ellie Henry, a Registered Practical Nurse from Alderville First Nation Reserve. Ellie lived in Scarborough in her youth and returned to spearhead more inclusive healthcare and services to better meet the needs of Indigenous patients and their families. This includes weaving more traditional practices into their healthcare journey, building new care approaches, and growing connections between the hospital and community.
Ellie is one of many people at SHN who are dedicated to offering equitable and culturally sensitive healthcare to marginalized groups in Scarborough, and improving health outcomes through research, education, and an evidence-based approach.
Strategic Direction: Population Health and Equity
SHN will champion improved health outcomes by matching our services to Scarborough communities’ needs.
Scarborough is defined by its diversity of cultures, social and economic contexts, and care needs.
Delivering high-quality, safe care is founded in understanding our communities’ needs, and reflecting them in how we care for our population. We will be a national leader in health equity research and education, applying population data and an evidence-based approach to address key healthcare challenges in Scarborough.