Multiple systemic reasons within acute care and community can result in delays in patient discharge. Patients who remain in hospital, but no longer require acute care support, are also at increased risk of hospital related harm. This blocks access for patients who need hospital beds. The system must be patient-centered by providing the right care to the patient.

Health Beyond Hospital: Integrated Discharge Hub is an initiative to support medically fit Nova Scotians to return home from hospital sooner. The goal of Health Beyond Hospital: Integrated Discharge Hub is to bring all partners together, review current state processes, and identify a model to test for Nova Scotia that enhances collaboration and understanding between hospital and community programs.

Find more information, including initiative partners involved and the progress to date, in the Health Beyond Hospital: Integrated Discharge Hub overview.

MFA will be applied to all Microsoft 365 applications and will prompt you to verify your identity with the authentication methods you have registered. Please check your Nova Scotia Health email accounts for implementation dates and registration instructions.

You will be MFA prompted approximately every 30 days when accessing applications like Outlook email, MS Teams, and OneDrive. The new Self-Service Password Reset service will allow you to use your authentication methods to reset your password without having to call the Service Desk.  

 For more information about MFA and SSPR at Nova Scotia Health, visit our intranet: Multifactor Authentication for NSH.

Questions or need assistance? Please call the Service Desk.

The recording of Navigating Nova Scotia Health’s Medical Affairs Department: Services and Supports, presented by Grayson Fulmer, Senior Director of Medical Affairs, is now available. This seminar introduces the Nova Scotia Health Medical Affairs team and highlights the services and supports available for physicians, as well as how to access them. It is ideal for physicians working in Nova Scotia, physician leaders providing services across Nova Scotia Health, Nova Scotia Health leaders, and anyone interested in understanding the operational backbone of medical services in the province.

Register for upcoming presentations:

• Tues, Oct 8, 2024 from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM: Physician Resources Process Overview Presented by Grayson Fulmer
• Tue, Nov 12, 2024 from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM: Introducing Nova Scotia Health’s Physician Recruitment Strategy Presented by Katrina Philopoulos
• Tue, Dec 10, 2024 from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM: Understanding Nova Scotia Health’s Medical By-Laws, Physician Complaints, and Disciplinary Process Presented by Jesse Joice 

Medical Affairs is hosting informational seminars this Fall for Physicians, Physician Leaders, and healthcare professionals. These sessions will cover key topics that Physicians frequently seek information and resources on, focusing on Medical Affairs support, processes, and procedures. 

We are pleased to announce the annual NS Health Quality Awards competition. This is an opportunity to share the great quality work that your team is doing across NS Health and to showcase your team’s commitment to excellence, quality improvement, patient experience and patient safety! Nova Scotia Health Quality Awards are modeled on the Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL) National Awards Program.

Please ensure you meet the NS Health Quality Award Competition deadline Wednesday, November 13, 2024, at 4:00 pm as the package of submissions will be sent directly to the judging panel, so unfortunately, extensions cannot be granted. Winners will be announced in December 2024.

The NS Health Quality Award competition welcomes submissions to one of following most applicable categories for your initiative:

1)      Health Care Innovation Team Award

Recognizes disruptive innovation, cutting edge system transformation and outcomes, diverse population, and sustainability of change. Honors teams who within the past three years have worked on a results-oriented initiative that has created significant, sustained change over a min. of 18 months. Two sub-categories:

a)      Disruptive innovation initiative(s) within an organization: focused on a major issue in fundamental and sustained change within a single site, or multi-site organization.

b)      Disruptive innovation initiative(s) across a health system: innovation intervention resulting in fundamental and sustained change across the continuum of care, between two or more organizations, service networks or partners.

2)      Award of Excellence in Mental Health and Addictions Quality Improvement

Honors a hospital, health authority, community program/service, or a leader that demonstrates evidence-informed and sustained quality improvements in the area of mental health and addictions.

3)      Excellence in Patient Experience Award

Honors organizations and individuals who have set in place innovations that improve the human experience in healthcare.

4)      Excellence in Patient Safety Award

Recognizes individuals/teams committed to improving patient safety within healthcare, through leadership, culture, best practices, innovation, or change management.

5)      Excellence in Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility Award

Recognizes teams within NS Health that are committed to creating and promoting diversity and inclusion to improve the environment for its employees, and to better service their customers/patients, and the community.

Submission forms for each award are found on the Quality & Safety Intranet Site under the Quality Awards Tab.

All awards submissions should be sent electronically to Jolene.Whitmore@nshealth.ca for review. Your entire submission should be in one electronic PDF file. Please ensure you keep the word version of your document for future editing purposes. Please ensure all text fields prior to saving as PDF are in editable word version (not pasted photo/PDF versions).

Thank you and we look forward to your submissions!                                                               

World Patient Safety Day, recognized annually on September 17, was established in 2019 by the World Health Organization, with the goal of promoting public awareness and understanding of patient safety, and encouraging collaboration between patients, health workers, policymakers, and healthcare leaders.

While World Patient Safety Day promotes conversations on a global scale, it’s also a great time to highlight initiatives underway right now in Nova Scotia, including the work being advanced by the One Person One Record (OPOR) Program, which will serve to enhance patient outcomes and experiences across the province – including information and processes around diagnostics.

This year’s theme is, “Improving diagnosis for patient safety,” highlighting how important timely and accurate diagnosis is in ensuring patient safety and improving health outcomes. The slogan, “Get it right, make it safe!” also resonates with the OPOR Program as patient safety is at the core of this clinical transformation.

The OPOR team has spent hundreds of hours with local subject matter experts to evaluate workflows, equipment, resources, and data, to inform the design of the new OPOR Clinical Information System (OPOR-CIS) to ensure we “get it right” and that we have a system that is optimized for care in Nova Scotia.

Learn more here.

The Hants Shore Community Health Centre in Kempt Shore is wishing Dr. Michael Cussen, their long-time family physician well as he moves on to retirement after almost 40 years of serving his community. As he starts his next phase in life, the clinic welcomes a new physician, Dr. Luma Al-Ameri, who is continuing the practice and taking on Dr. Cussen’s roster of patients. 

Dr. Cussen began working at the Hants Shore Community Health Centre in 1986 after making the move from Ireland to Nova Scotia. He chose to pursue medicine to follow in the footsteps of his father who was also a family physician.  

As Dr. Cussen transitions into his retirement, patients can rest assured there will be no gap in care as the community welcomes a new physician, Dr. Luma Al-Ameri, who will continue the Hants Shore Community Health Centre practice. 

Learn more here.

TEND would like to hear how employees in the Central Zone are being personally impacted by the challenges identified through the TEND Roadmap to Organizational Health Survey. Focus groups for physicians in the Central Zone will take place in October, and your feedback will inform the recommendations. All information shared in the group will be confidential.

Focus groups will be 60 minutes on Zoom and are currently open for registration. Space in these groups is limited. If you are interested in providing more feedback to the TEND Roadmap team, please sign up early. You can register using the QR code or click here.

If you need any further assistance, please contact Workplace Health Promotion Coordinator, Tammie.Riggs@nshealth.ca.

Speaker: Dr. Jane Philpott

Date: October 3rd

Time: 5:00 – 6:15pm, in-person only reception to follow

Virtual attendance or In Person at: Theatre A, Tupper Link, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building, Dalhousie University, 5850 College Street, Halifax

Join us online or in person at Dalhousie University, where Dr. Jane Philpott will present “Transforming Health Care Through Innovation and Collaboration.” As the health workforce faces unprecedented pressures, Dr. Philpott will share her vision for the future of health care.

Don’t miss this enlightening presentation and the opportunity to engage with leaders in health sciences during the reception. Register at 2024 Kinley Lecture - Welcome (dal.ca)

Seniors Week in Nova Scotia is October 2 – 9 and this year’s theme is Celebrating Aging Well. Frailty is a leading complication of hospitalization in older people and leads to functional decline, especially for those who live with frailty prior to admission. Frailty can be prevented, and, in some cases, can be improved or reversed. The Nova Scotia Health Frailty and Elder Care Network is taking steps to enhance how we deliver services to seniors and support them in aging well.

Please join Dr. Ken Rockwood, senior medical director of the Frailty and Elder Care Network, for an online presentation – Frailty Attuned Care - on Wednesday, October 2 at noon to explore how frailty-safe care across healthcare setting can lead to earlier care intervention and treatment to achieve the best patient outcomes. For more information about frailty, visit https://www.nshealth.ca/frailty.

1-833-876-1724

If you're a physician seeking support for your practice or wishing to provide feedback, please reach out to our hotline. Our dedicated team is ready to assist you.

In the event we're engaged in another call, rest assured your voice message will be promptly addressed within one business day. Your concerns will be directed to the Medical Affairs team and our health system partners for resolution.

Our task force is committed to returning calls and scheduling meetings with practices at mutually convenient times.

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