Annual Report

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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT & CHAIRMAN

It is our pleasure to report to the community we serve on the activities for the year ending March 31, 1999. The year began with hope for a very bright future for the hospital and the community it serves when final Directives to the hospital and advice to the Minister of Health on the expansion of the Credit Valley Hospital were issued, by the Health Services Restructuring Commission on April 27, 1998. The Board established a Building and Planning Sub-Committee. The committee, together with Mr. Ian Sinclair, Associate Vice-President, Corporate Planning and Construction and the firm of Agnew Peckham Consultants completed a very detailed Functional Program describing the size and scope of facilities, required to implement the Directives of the Restructuring Commission and the advice to the Minister to establish the Peel Regional Cancer Centre and a Regional Child and Maternal Care Centre at the Credit Valley Hospital. It is important to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of all hospital and medical staff who contributed to this extensive planning exercise, including the Future Initiatives Team put in place to oversee the creation of the Functional Program document. After fast-tracking the completion of this first step of the planning process, the hospital remained hopeful that there would be equally fast approvals from the Ministry of Health.

Subsequent to the end of our fiscal year, we were pleased to receive approval of $45.4 million ($31.8m from the Ministry of Heath and the balance from the community) for the building of the Peel Regional Cancer Centre at the Credit Valley Hospital. In addition, we received a letter from The Minister supporting the integration of the Centre with expanded Ambulatory Care space. This is indeed good news for our community.

Last year's Annual Report also referred to ongoing fiscal constraint and the need for sustainable growth funding to ensure that we have the staff and supplies in place to serve the increasing demand for service which, in turn, is related to the growing population we serve. In order to maintain quality, the Board of Governors approved an interim budget which resulted in an increasing deficit each month throughout most of the fiscal year.

Fortunately, in December 1998 an injection of $3.5m in one-time transitional funding from the Ministry of Health allowed us to end the year with a small deficit of less than one half of one percent. Our ability to maintain quality while under such fiscal constraint and uncertainty, is a tribute to our physicians and staff who worked together with management and the Board to do the best that they could under very trying circumstances.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Health, the hospital established a Steering Committee to oversee an External Review of the hospital's finances as it relates to the growth of the population it serves. The SteeringCommittee was chaired by the Executive Director of the Halton Peel District Health Council with membership including a health council member and three representatives each from the Ministry of Health and the hospital. The extensive analysis undertaken by the consulting group, HCM with assistance from Hay Associates, was nearly complete at the end of the fiscal year. This independent objective review of the financial situation at the Credit Valley Hospital contains the following highlights and major themes:

* the hospital's operations are efficient;

* actions are needed to deal with current and projected growth;

* the hospital's financial position is currently sound, but precarious;

* clinical and administrative efficiencies have been realized;

* there are opportunities for operational improvement;

* and the solution to Emergency Department throughput requires many interrelated initiatives. Emergency Department throughput is a symptom of a more systemic problem: dealing with the impacts of  growth within available capital and operating resources.

It is clear from the above comments that we must continue to work hard to ensure there is sustainable growth funding in place for the Credit Valley Hospital and that much needed expansion projects are fast-tracked. When the hospital received the Directives and read the advice to the Minister of Health concerning major new initiatives at the Credit Valley Hospital, it was obvious that we needed to review our Strategic Plan and to ensure that we had Vision, Mission and Values Statements that were relevant to our future state.

We are pleased to announce that through an exhaustive process involving hundreds of employees, physicians and volunteers, the Board of Governors at its meeting on May 27, 1999 approved the new Vision, Mission and Values statements as well as a new Strategic Plan to act as a road map for the future of the Credit Valley Hospital. These two documents are featured at our Annual General Meeting and in this formal report. We encourage you to read them and we assure you that the Board of Governors will work diligently in the coming years to follow this overall road map as we implement the Restructuring Commission directives.

There are related groups that we must acknowledge in this Annual Report. Hospitals would not be able to run without the extensive contribution intime and money from our volunteers. Our CVH Associates are the best!  Similarly, it is vital that hospitals raise money in order to purchaseequipment and provide capital for expansions. Our Credit Valley Hospital Foundation Board of Directors works closely with the hospital to ensure your donations are used wisely. Last year was a record year for total funds raised by the Foundation. Finally, we thank the citizens of Mississauga andsurrounding communities for your ongoing support of the Credit Valley Hospital.