Rural Roads Health Services (RRHS) has a rich history of providing excellent, compassionate care. As community hospitals, we pride ourselves in providing high quality, safe patient care.

Patient Safety Plan

RRHS is committed to delivering quality, innovative, and accessible care to the community in collaboration with their partners.

The 2024-2026 Patient Safety Plan aligns with our strategic direction and reflects what is important to our communities –quality and patient safety. The plan is part of our broader quality improvement program.

As we make progress on our current Patient Safety Plan, we will update team members regularly including our Patient and Family Advisory Committee (PFAC), our Operational Quality Committee, our Board Quality, Risk and Patient Safety Committee, the Medical Advisory Committee and the Board of Directors. These committees will also be consulted to draft future Patient Safety Plans.

We commit to publicly sharing our progress on our current Patient Safety Plan annually, and to sharing each new Patient Safety Plan as they are finalized (every 3 years).

Quality Improvement Plan

At RRHS, we are on a continuous journey of quality improvement. Our Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) is one of the tools we use to achieve our quality goals. This plan, which is updated annually, represents our ongoing commitment to achieve system-wide quality, and safety best practices to improve patient experiences and outcomes.

Each initiative within our QIP has identified a specific target the organization plans to achieve. Targets are chosen based on a number of factors including best available evidence, how we’ve performed in the past, or how our peers are performing (where data is available). We strive to identify targets to motivate our teams and drive our improvement work forward, while being mindful of the challenges to making change in a health care setting.

Each year, as part of our commitment to the Excellent Care for All Act (2010), we publicly post our QIP and submit the requirements to the provincial government so they can track improvement performance across the system.

Click the links below to see the latest QIP.

AHI Quality Improvement Plan

TDMH Quality Improvement Plan

Wait Times

By visiting the Ontario Health website, Ontarians can see how long patients are waiting for treatment in the five key services, part of the government’s Wait Time Strategy: cataract surgery, cancer surgery, hip and knee replacements, select cardiac procedures, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans.

Wait times are categorized on the website by procedure and hospital. This information is updated regularly.

Patient Safety Indicator Reports

The Ministry of Health identifies several safety indicators that all hospitals are required to publicly report. Rural Roads Health Services fully supports these initiatives, as transparency promotes accountability, drives performance improvement, enhances patient safety, and strengthens public confidence in Ontario’s healthcare system. Refer to the chart below:

(Please click on the item below for more information)

• AHI C-Difficile
• TDMH C-Difficile
• AHI Hand Hygiene
• TDMH Hand Hygiene
• AHI MRSA Bacteraemia
• TDMH MRSA Bacteraemia
• AHI VRE Bacteraemia
• TDMH VRE Bacteraemia
• TDMH CLI-BSI
• TDMH Surgical Safety Checklist
• TDMH SSI
• TDMH VAP
• HSMR

 

Your Role in Patient Safety:

There are many ways in which patients and visitors can help keep patients safe. You can help by:

1. Abiding by the visiting rules. Respect visiting rules in place to allow the hospital teams to provide the care required for recovery from illness. Visiting should be limited to two visitors per patient. Congestion beyond this increases the safety risk of others.
2. Sanitizing hands before and after visiting. The hand sanitizers in patient rooms are for everyone. Please sanitize your hands when entering and leaving the room of the person you are visiting to avoid bringing in and carrying out germs. Clean your hands after sneezing, coughing, touching your eyes, nose or mouth; after using the restroom, and before and after eating and drinking.  Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue or your sleeve, and do not sit on patient beds or handle their equipment.  Read and follow any instructions posted outside the patient’s room.
3. Stay home if you are sick. Do not visit the hospital if you are sick or have had any ill symptoms within the last three days including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever (or feeling feverish), uncontrolled cough or rash.
4. Check first with the nurse first before you bring food, send flowers, or take the kids. If you change the water in a vase of flowers, be sure to wash your hands afterward. If bringing food, check with the nurse first as the patient may be on a special diet and/or the food could spoil. Likewise, check with the nurse about the rules for children visiting. If you bring youngsters, don’t let them play on the floor or bed. Ensure children wash their hands as they enter and leave the room. Make sure the child is free from symptoms of infection (e.g. runny nose, sore throat, rash, cough, etc.).
5. Observing/Abiding by Special Precautions. If the person you are visiting is on “Isolation Precautions”, they will have a sign outside their door by the room number. Talk to the nurse before entering the room to find out what steps you will have to take, such as wearing a mask or other personal protective equipment (PPE). Also ask for any educational materials if needed.
6. Don’t contribute to the clutter. Limit the patient’s personal items in the hospital room. Less clutter eases the critical job of cleaning hospital rooms.  Keep patient items off the floor and away from waste containers.
7. Back at home. Keep the patient healthy back at home. Follow discharge instructions. Ask for special instructions where needed.