Leadership Excellence Award Recipients

The Leadership Excellence in Quality and Safety Awards acknowledge and celebrate staff who are making positive, sustainable changes across the health system. Through the awards program, the Health PEI Board recognizes individuals and health care teams that have led initiatives to improve the quality and safety of care provided to Islanders.

The Health PEI Board would like to thank all individuals and teams who submitted applications. 

Awards were presented to the following recipients: 

2024

Quality and Safety Award

Primary Care Roadmap, Dr. Kathie McNally

The 2024 Leadership Excellence in Quality and Safety Award was presented to Dr. Kathie McNally, with special consideration to all those involved in the development of the Primary Care Roadmap (PCRM).

This initiative aims to modernize primary care in PEI by enhancing team-based care, innovation, access and integration across the health care system.

Under Dr. McNally’s direction, the work began in January 2020. They released their report in 2021, which resulted in 17 new patient medical homes, along with other key advancements in primary care. 

Dr. McNally demonstrated a phenomenal work ethic and positivity throughout her roles as lead on this initiative; as well as in her role as the Chief Medical Officer for Health PEI; as a family physician; and as a hospitalist.  

Awards of Merit

Interventional Nephrology Clinic, Dr. Michael Girsberger and Kendra Conrad

Dr. Michael Girsberger (Nephrologist) and Kendra Conrad (Interventional Nephrology Registered Nurse) were Merit Award recipients for their work with the Provincial Renal Program in developing and implementing the Nephrology Clinic.

The launch of the Interventional Nephrology clinic has led to reduced patient wait times, improved care transitions, earlier diagnosis and treatment, fewer ICU and hospital admissions, and better patient outcomes and experiences. All of which are excellent measures of patient reported outcomes and experiences.

Dr. Girsberger and Ms. Conrad’s leadership demonstrated in the development and implementation of the Interventional Nephrology Clinic is commendable.

Reduction in Clinical Wait Times, Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic, The Mount

The second Merit Award recognizes the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic at The Mount for making significant, sustainable improvements in Quality and Safety. Led by Jan Skeffington, the team included medical office assistants (MOAs), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), and physicians. This group represented the largest specialty clinic to adopt the new Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, moving them away from paper charts.

This shift enabled the team to better understand wait times, set targets, and streamline workflows. As a result, they improved the triage process, ensuring urgent cases were seen within targeted wait times and referrals were managed more effectively and consistently.

2023

Quality and Safety Award

Home Care Transformation Project

In May 2022 Provincial Home Care moved to a fully electronic case management system with electronic scheduling software. All members of the Home Care team use either a tablet computer or a smart phone while visiting clients in their communities, in their own homes.

This means that the staff have the most up to date information at their fingertips, and instead of completing the client assessments and charting on paper, they will now simply enter the information into the computer system as they provide the care, making sure the chart is up to date in real time for all members of the home care team.

The team, which includes literally every member, be those engaged in client homes providing direct service delivery or those supporting the administrative aspects of the program, has brought them to this point with dedication, resilience and focus on the client’s best interests.

Awards of Merit

MoreOB Program
This program serves as an all-encompassing performance enhancement initiative, instilling a patient safety-centric culture within obstetrical units. A few of the benefits reported by the participating hospitals included:

• Improved outcomes and safety to birthing persons and babies
• Enhanced standardization and consistency in care practices
• An environment that fosters long-term engagement and dedications among participants
• Decreased medical legal costs

Orthoptic Vision Screening as a Triage Tool 

Vision Screening is a brief orthoptic-only evaluation that was offered to pediatric patients referred for strabismus. This was a simple but valuable triaging solution that reduced orthoptic wait times, eased parental concern, filled gaps in the Orthoptist’s schedules, and identified patients that required priority ophthalmology assessment. The implementation of the Orthoptic Vision Screening as a triage tool allowed for the elimination of a 700+ patient waitlist/backlog within 2 years and reduced pediatric wait times to within the ideal range.

2022

Quality and Safety Award

An Amalgamation to Stabilize the Prince County Hospital Intensive Care Unit
Awarded to: PCH & Collaborative Partnerships

This initiative involved an aggressive multi-faceted and innovative approach including internal work plans developed from staff feedback, Health PEI investments, and community collaboration. Additionally, an initiative called, “a community partnership for Prince County Hospital” began in Summerside to engage, communicate and mobilize the community to work together to support some of the staffing challenges facing the Prince County Hospital Intensive Care Unit.

This group was comprised of various representatives including the City of Summerside, The Hospital Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce, and Health PEI. The intention of this group was to look inward, from a community lens, to see what could be done to support the recruitment and ultimately retention of healthcare practitioners at the hospital.

Recognizing that the Government is working hard to support the recruitment of health care practitioners in the region, this group came together to explore various ways, through a positive, engaging, and collaborative approach to support and build upon those efforts with the hope to prevent any service interruption. Local targeted and aggressive strategies were developed and implemented resulting in the mitigation of the immediate crisis and bringing the ICU into recovery reducing the vacancy rate from 71 percent in February 2021 to 10 percent in March 2022. 

Awards of Merit

Innovative Children’s COVID Clinic 
Awarded to Public Health Nurses & Prince County Hospital 

During the COVID-19 pandemic time teams had to think of creative ways to provide effective services to clients. One target population that has been greatly affected is children. In the fall/winter of 2021, COVID-19 vaccines were released for children aged 5-11 years. Parents wanted to protect their children from the potentially serious illness caused by COVID-19. Vaccines for children can be a stressful event. The COVID-19 vaccine for this age group (5-11) required two doses, eight weeks apart. The vaccine clinics looked for ways to make this vaccine less stressful for children.

It was suggested the staff try the Virtual Reality (VR) headsets with children as a means to improve the experience. The headsets were being used in acute care with dementia patients. These headsets provide the child with a virtual environment such as being surrounded by puppies, penguins, bike riding, beaches, boats, skating, firework shows, etc. The clinic decided to give them a try.

After some training the VR goggles were used to distract children when they were getting their vaccine significantly reducing their anxiety, the stress for the staff member and improving the overall experience for the child. This device proved to be extremely helpful for children, especially children with high anxiety. This clinic was among the first in Canada to use virtual reality to improve the experience for children.

The Summerside vaccine clinic gave over 3500 vaccines to this 5-to-11-year-old population. This was an amazing service to families and provided protection for a vulnerable population. The VR goggles helped with this endeavour, providing an alternative distraction for children who had high anxiety. 

COVID In-Home Vaccine Initiative & IV Sotrovimab Treatment 
Awarded to the Provincial Home Care Nursing Service & Administration 

The Home Care Team collaborated with Public Health and Chief Public Health Office (CPHO) in the early stages of COVID vaccine administration to ensure citizens that were homebound and unable to access vaccine at a community clinic setting (for a variety of reasons) would be provided vaccine in their own homes. Home Care also provided resources to assist Public Health in administration in Long Term Care settings. Collaboration was required between Home Care, Public Health, CPHO, Long Term Care, and Acute Care to make this initiative a success. This work continues with additional boosters being administered by the home care nursing service.

Home Care Administration staff were trained in order to submit client data and administration into the Provincial COVID vaccine registry. Prince Edward Island was one of the first provinces to provide in-home COVID vaccination due to the commitment and strong leadership of the Home Care team to ensure citizens were vaccinated.

Once the medication treatment of intravenous Sotrovimab started, Home Care was once again called upon to help administer the treatment in citizens' homes including Community Care Facilities. A guideline and process were established and Home Care agreed to provide the nursing service. This was a collaboration with providing physicians, acute care pharmacy, and home care. Communication and collaboration also occurred with the individual receiving treatment and as applicable community care facilities. Home care nursing service continues to provide COVID-19 administration and when called upon will provide Sotrovimab administration.

In the early days of COVID, PEI's approach to providing access to the vaccine for home bound citizens was discussed at the national level of public health.  It is hard to evaluate but the desired outcome was always with both services to prevent the frail population from COVID-19 and to prevent illness that would lead to hospitalizations and severe illness.

2021

Quality and Safety Award

The Leadership Excellence in Quality and Safety Award went to the Public Health Nursing and COVID-19 Vaccine Roll Out Team for their role in providing mass vaccination clinics during the pandemic. The vaccine roll out had four main goals 1) to enable as many residents as possible to be immunized against COVID-19 as quickly as possible; 2) to allocate, distribute and administer vaccines as efficiently, equitably and effectively as possible; 3) to deliver immunizations in a safe, effective and efficient manner to identified priority groups; and 4) to develop a communications plan to ensure all Islanders were aware of when and where they may receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This initiative was done in collaboration with the Chief Public Health Office of Prince Edward Island, Canadian Red Cross, and many retired healthcare professionals and volunteers. With their pro-active approach, Prince Edward Island is a leader in the number of people immunized per capital across Canada.

Awards of Merit

Awards of Merit were presented to the Unaffiliated Virtual Care Program (UVC). The program was developed as part of the COVID-19 response with funding from Health Canada Infoway. The goal of the program is to increase access for care to patients without a primary care provider and who’s names are also on the Provincial Patient Registry (PPR). The Unaffiliated Virtual Care Program applies appropriate technology so that patients can access vital services such as prescription refills, medical notes, lab requisitions and others. The Unaffiliated Virtual Care Program has helped to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmissions by reducing the waiting room crowding and the need for patients to leave home to receive routine health care. UVC services are provided free of charge and patients retain their place on the PPR.

Awards of Merit were presented to Sarah Lutes and Fiona Mitchell for the Health PEI IV to PO Antimicrobial Conversion Implementation. The goal is to improve patient safety and care through the development and implementation of a pharmacist led Intravenous (IV) to Oral (PO) Antimicrobial Conversion initiative, to promote the safe and appropriate use of antimicrobials and to comply with Accreditation Canada’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Required Organizational Practice. Appropriate antimicrobial use ultimately leads to decreases in resistance, reductions in C. difficile cases, and improved patient outcomes. The pharmacist-led program uses a customizable clinical alert built in Cerner to notify the pharmacist that a patient may qualify for conversion to oral therapy, based on parameters set out in the guideline. The pharmacist then performs an assessment and contacts the prescriber with any recommendations. The IV to PO Conversion project creates a collaborative process that will directly benefit the health outcomes of our patients across the acute care sites. Evidenced based benefits include increased patient satisfaction, reduced risk of line related complications, reduced length of stay in hospital, reduced nursing administration time, and reduced cost.

2020

Quality and Safety Award

The Leadership Excellence in Quality and Safety Award went to the Mental Health and Addictions COVID-19 Management Team for their Psychiatry Urgent Care Clinic Initiative. In response to the demand on emergency departments at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Prince County Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mental Health and Addictions team created the Psychiatric Urgent Care Unit at Hillsborough Hospital to assess, triage and provide direct access to inpatient mental health and community mental health services for patients in crisis.

Awards of Merit

Awards of Merit were presented to the Integration of Mental Health Crisis Response into Acute Care at Prince County Hospital. The Prince County Hospital put forth a proposal for increased supports in the form of a multidisciplinary team that works collaboratively with the emergency department, psychiatry, community mental health and addictions, law enforcement, child protection, and other provincial agencies to provide crisis support and coordination to patients in the East and West Prince health networks.

Awards of Merit were presented to the IV Pump (Medication Library) Implementation Project. The goal was to improve patient safety by implementing IV Pumps (Medication Library) and to standardize infusion practices across the Island. The Smart IV Pump and Medication Library ensures compliance with the Infusion Pump Safety Required Organizational Practice and increases patient safety. This technology will benefit Island residents in hospitals, at the Provincial Palliative Care Centre, and at home.

2019

Quality and Safety Award

The Leadership Excellence in Quality and Safety Award went to Paul Young and the Tele-rounding Team from Western Hospital. A first in Canada, the virtual physician hospital in-patient coverage model was launched in an effort to avoid closing Western Hospital and to stabilize in-patient coverage. The tele-rounding team partnered with Maple, a new telehealth company in Canada, to connect remote physicians from across Canada to patients on the Medical Unit of Western Hospital. The system allows doctors to provide care in much in the same way a physician physically rounding the ward would, but virtually from a remote location.  

Awards of Merit

Awards of merit were presented to the INSPIRED 2.0 Committee for their initiative: “Scaling Up INSPIRED Approaches to COPD Care.” The goal of this initiative was to decrease the burden of symptoms for persons living with moderate to severe COPD. The program focused on creating partnerships among community-based programs to deliver a proactive hospital to home program aimed at improving the transition and discharge process.

Awards of Merit were presented to the Orthopedic Intervention Clinic, which was launched in November 2018. The Orthopedic Intervention Clinic was established to increase the appropriate referrals of patients with osteoarthritis of hips and knees to the orthopedic service for surgery and to improve the non-operative care management for those patients who are not deemed appropriate for surgery. This clinic, first of its kind in Canada, has seen over 600 patients and has improved appropriate referrals for knee and hip surgery (osteoarthritis).   

2018

Quality and Safety Award

The Leadership Excellence in Quality and Safety Award went to the Volunteer Services Program in West Prince. The new integrated and innovative program recruits, orientates, develops and coordinates volunteer services and related programs and activities for facilities in West Prince, including Western Hospital, Community Hospital O'Leary, Maplewood Manor and Margaret Stewart Ellis Home. The program has grown exponentially with over 250 volunteers, and it continues to grow month over month.  

Awards of Merit

Awards of merit were also presented to the Provincial Skin and Wound Steering Committee for their development of the Provincial Diabetic Foot Screening Program which has the goal of increasing patient self-care preventative education, early identification of problem areas and helping patients access the most appropriate care path as quickly as possible; and Dr. Marvin Tesch for implementing the Electronic Synoptic Pathology Reporting Initiative (ESPRI) for PEI. Synoptic reporting is a documentation method that uses structured checklists to help physicians produce more standardized, complete, consistent and easy to read medical reports for both patients and clinicians.  

2017

Quality and Safety Award

The Quality and Safety Award went to the team who initiated the “Paramedics Providing Palliative Care at Home” Program. This program provides patients within the Integrated Palliative Care Program “after hours”, in house support for pain management and comfort measures by trained Island EMS paramedics. The care offered in house for unexpected palliative events further supports the family and clients wish to remain in the home rather than being transferred to hospital.

Awards of Merit

Awards of merit were also presented to Adrienne Fudge, RN and Colleen Murphy, RN for leading the Remote Patient Monitoring Program that provides home monitoring for patients with heart failure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder; and Kings Primary Care Network for developing a collaborative mental health model of practice in primary care that provides early screening, early identification, and intervention related to mild/moderate anxiety and depression in the adult population.

2016

Quality and Safety Award

The Quality and Safety Award went to Primary Care INR Clinics for implementing nurse managed point of care anticoagulation clinics to improve quality, safety and access for clients requiring anticoagulation management.

Awards of Merit 

Awards of merit were also presented to Dr. Carol McClure for developing a Mammography Radiology Report Card to improve quality and performance monitoring; Verna Ryan for initiating a safety review of Hillsborough Hospital and ongoing collaboration and support to improve the safety of mental health services; and the Prince County Hospital Interdisciplinary Bariatric Team for providing quality, safe, and patient-centred bariatric care.  

2015

Individual Award

The individual award went to Martha St. Pierre, Provincial Diabetes Clinical Lead, for her role in leading quality and safety initiatives to help improve the outcomes for diabetes care across the province. Some of these initiatives include: Foot Care Committee, Point of Care Blood Glucose Testing Standardization Committee, Pediatric Insulin Pump Program, Health PEI Frail Elderly Guidelines, and the Diabetes Strategy 2014-17.

Group Award

The group award went to the Surgery/Restorative Care Unit at Prince County Hospital for the implementation of rounding at the patient’s bedside and completion of a written report for communication at shift change. This person-centred approach to patient care significantly decreased the reporting time at shift change, and increased patient satisfaction and knowledge of their care plan.

An honourable mention was also given to Western Hospital for their work on establishing and improving wait times and flow in the emergency department.

2014

Individual Award

The individual award went to Diane Boswall, Public Health Nursing Clinical Specialist, for her leadership role in the Lean project entitled "Homeward Bound" at Prince County Hospital and Public Health Nursing West. The project improved communication processes between staff and clients and helped to ensure a safer transition from hospital to community for mothers and babies. She also led the spread of this project to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Public Health Nursing East.

Group Award

The group award went to the Provincial Laboratory Quality Improvement Team for their focus on continuous quality improvement and standardization of laboratory services across the province. Some of their many accomplishments include: establishing a safety committee at all laboratory sites, standardization of standard operating procedures at all sites, creation of a provincial laboratory website, creation of a new guide to laboratory service for clients and publication of an new "Laboratory Quality Manual."

An honourable mention was also given to the "Western Beta Blocker's" Lean project team who were successful in lowering the acute length of stay of inpatients at Western Hospital.

2013

Individual Award

The individual award was presented to Bobbi Jo Flynn, Mental Health Programming Lead. Bobbi Jo led a number of mental health service quality initiatives which improved access to services and quality of care in mental health.

Group Award

The group award was presented to the Provincial Long-Term Care Quality Improvement Team for their work on medication management improvement initiatives.