By Dr. John Wright The Scarborough Hospital, which serves Canada’s most mul- ticultural community, has long recognized a need to be more welcoming for patients of differ- ent cultures and faiths. In fact, a brand new Mission, Vision and Values recently launched reflects our role in our diverse community.
The Mission, Vision and Values were developed following more than a year of consultations with internal and external stakehold- ers, and I believe the result is a living, breathing document that speaks to our commitment to cre- ating an inclusive environment for our staff and patients with the overriding objective of providing excellent care. Our Vision, which I am partic- ularly excited about, is “To be rec- ognized as Canada’s leader in pro- viding the best healthcare for a global community.” For us here at The Scarborough Hospital, our ability to provide quality, patient-driven care really hinges on successfully meeting the challenges of provid- ing healthcare in a highly diverse community.
This has always been one of our strengths, but now that it has been identified as our Vision, our community will expect more and we need to expect more of ourselves. To simply look around our hospital is to understand why. On any given day, the patients and visitors to our two hospital campuses reflect the incredibly diverse community of Scarborough. Two-thirds of our city’s population is visible minori- ties, compared with just 40 per cent for the rest of Toronto. Fifty- five per cent were born outside of Canada. More than 100 different languages are spoken. For most hospitals and health- care providers, such diversity presents challenges. Communication is the most obvi- ous issue—translation and inter- pretation costs can be prohibitive when so many different lan- guages are involved. And what about the logistical challenges of creating navigational signs or meaningful, accurate patient edu- cation materials in multiple lan- guages? Familiarity with the unique cultural, linguistic or religious needs of patients is another chal- lenge. Some women giving birth, for instance, might consider med- ical care from a male physician to be less than ideal, regardless of his skills and abilities.
Patients who require special dietary con- siderations, such as halal or vege- tarian foods, may be unable or unwilling to eat the food prepared in the hospital kitchen. In many cases, the solutions to these challenges may be found through education. Our staff has become very familiar with cross- cultural training aimed at improv- ing their understanding of the unique needs of our patients and visitors. We have a dedicated department responsible for devel- oping culturally-sensitive training programs, as well as providing volunteer interpreters in 48 differ- ent languages. And we encourage appreciation of diversity through a number of hospital/community events including Diversity Day and religious celebrations such as Eid, Diwali and Wesak. We are also fortunate to have a very strong Spiritual and Religious Care department that is able to provide patients with multi-faith care and access to vol- unteer spiritual caregivers from every major religion. Patients and visitors will also notice that our own staff reflect the makeup of our community— rarely does a day go by that I don’t hear hallway conversations between a staff member and a patient in a language other than English. For a new immigrant, having someone speak their own language can be a welcome relief, especially if they or their family are visiting the hospital for emer- gency care. But the notion of diversity and the spirit of our new Vision extend beyond the obvious examples of culture, religion and language.
Our Vision is really about trans- forming our hospital into an inclu- sive and welcoming environment for both staff and patients, enabling us to provide excellent patient-centred care. Diversity is really about accepting, respecting and embracing the global community we serve. It is about recognizing all the ways we are different which can include but is not limit- ed to: cultural, linguistic, reli- gious, gender, disability, religious and sexual orientation.
To truly achieve our Mission and Vision, we must work to remove any barriers to accessing our institution which may be cul- tural/linguistic, socio-economic or systemic. Naturally, this includes sig- nage and translation, but it’s real- ly about being proactive and responsive to the community we serve. It’s about ensuring that the attitudes, knowledge, behav- iours and practices we require are in place to meet the unique needs of our patients. It’s about creat- ing inclusive policies, programs and practices that address access and equity issues to better meet the healthcare needs of diverse populations.
It’s about the devel- opment of measurements and strategies that evaluate and report on the quality of care in a way that is relevant, meaningful and that will help us continue to improve. This can only be achieved through an integrated approach that sees us working closely with the agencies and other resources in our community as well as uni- versities and community colleges. Our goal is to capitalize on our existing expertise, to learn from those who have much to teach us, and to share our learnings with others in our field.
How will we measure our progress in achieving our Vision? Clearly, appropriate metrics will need to be developed, but we expect to see greater patient sat- isfaction, improved patient out- comes, enhanced attraction and retention of highly motivated staff and improved decision-making at all levels of the organization. In discussions with our staff and with our community partners, there has been a great deal of excitement about our Vision statement.
The concept clearly resonates, and reaffirms that we are on the right track toward pro- viding an outstanding patient care experience that meets the unique needs of each and every patient. We have achieved so much already, and yet we know we have a long way to go to truly realize our Vision. Caring for our global community Dr. John Wright is the President and CEO of The Scarborough Hospital in Toronto.