SLMHC achieves BPSO Designation! 

Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre - Special to The Bulletin

In what has been a three-year journey from 2021 to 2024, Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) is proud to announce that it has achieved Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) designation through the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO). 
RNAO describes BPSO Designation as, “a longstanding knowledge translation strategy that helps optimize health outcomes at the individual, organizational and health system levels... This internationally-renowned program’s strategic approach has been proven to trigger evidence-based cultures, improve patient experience and health outcomes, lower cost of care by preventing complications, and enrich staff satisfaction.” 
“This designation is very significant for Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre. It highlights their dedication and commitment to evidence-based practice and to their community as well. So, you can see through all of the work they’ve done, they have made practice changes within the last three years that are truly meaningful and valuable to the community, from implementing person and family-centred care for everyone, making sure there are great palliative approaches to care for their community, and the team is very dedicated,” says RNAO’s Implementation Science Manager and SLMHC’s BPSO Coach Harveer Punia. “This was a three-year journey, during the pandemic, so it looks quite different as well; it highlights even more so how dedicated the team was here.” 
Having already achieved similar BPSO status at the William A. “Bill” George Extended Care Facility in April 2019, it underlines the value this designation offers in patient care and speaks to the continued growth and development of health care at SLMHC. 
“It shows you the direction that we want to go as a hospital. We want to make sure that we are providing the best practices, with the benefit being for the patients. So, who benefits from us being a Best Practice Spotlight Organization? The patients. And that, I think, is what we’re here for, to 
serve the people and to make sure that the patients are getting the best care, and so this is only an example of being able to provide that, having those supports, having those resources from the RNAO and being able to continue on that journey,” says Dean Osmond, SLMHC President and CEO. 
“Becoming a BPSO really signifies or creates a community/collective identity, really shows that an organization is based on evidence and that they really want quality of care based on evidence… So, it’s that shift in culture, it’s not ‘we’re going to do this because this is how we’ve always done it,’ we’re going to do this because this is what’s best and we want the best outcomes,” says Sue Sweeney, Long-Term Care Best Practice Program Manager and William A. “Bill” George Extended Care Facility BPSO Coach. 
Directly leading the charge for BPSO Designation at SLMHC was Sue Anderson, Director of Patient Care Services, with the full support of the leadership and staff. This is her second such involvement on a journey to BPSO Designation, her first coming in April 2019 with the William A. “Bill” George Extended Care Facility. 
“It is absolutely incredible to be here because this has been a three-year journey, with the RNAO, to become a Best Practice Spotlight Organization, and there has been a lot of work by a lot of people in this hospital on the ground implementing these best practice guidelines (BPGs) such as pain assessment and care, the person and family-centred care, transitions in care, all guidelines that really impact the care that we are providing to our patients. It’s all evidence-based, which is what’s really exciting about it. We have all this evidence gathered through the wonderful organization of the RNAO,” says Anderson. 
Achieving BPSO Designation means that our patients can be even more assured that the care they receive is one that meets the standards of excellence that SLMHC strives for daily. 
“The RNAO best practice guidelines work provides us with a road map to providing evidence-based care, which ultimately improves patient outcomes,” says Anderson. 
“We want to be a Best Practice Spotlight Organization. Patients and their care are very important for us at Meno Ya Win, especially when we’re dealing with the communities and the people that we deal with here. We really need to make sure we’re wrapping the care around the patient,” says Osmond. 
This care takes into account the scope of the unique communities and patients we serve. It further enables SLMHC to effectively implement care holistically. 
“We provide holistic care. We look after the emotional, mental, spiritual, and the physical aspects of a person,” says Kathy Loon, SLMHC VP of Indigenous Services, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. “BPSO [designation] is basically walking the talk. In other words, we provide certain services that are unique to us. Some of the services that we provide are not provided in any other hospital in Canada, and that’s because we set out to provide services specifically to the Indigenous population and what happens is it teaches staff to do what the leadership of the area, how they want us to carry this organization. And it’s better for the patients that we serve.” 
“We provide the services within the hospital because the services don’t exist outside of our four walls especially in the Northern communities, so we have to make sure that we’re doing the patient-centred care so that the person is getting the care that they require before they are discharged from the hospital,” says Osmond. 
Achieving BPSO designation further demonstrates SLMHC’s commitment to excellence and the continued execution of the mission, vision and values. 
“I think it’s something that we can all make sure that we’re practicing at the highest standards and using evidence-based practice and making sure that we can back up what we’re doing and the reasons we’re doing them, so I think that’s important,” says Osmond. 
While this is a great achievement, the goal for SLMHC is to keep moving forward and adapting to provide our patients with the best possible care. 
“I think to stand still is to lose ground, so even though this a huge accomplishment, it’s really just a start in terms of working with our nursing managers and staff and really continuing to elevate the quality of care that we’re providing and updating as best practice guidelines change all the time,” says Dr. Laurel Laakso, SLMHC Local Physician and Chief of Staff. She says this entails, “staying current, continuing to innovate and come up with new and creative ways that we can elevate the care that we’re providing and working collaboratively with the medical staff as well to bring all of this into fruition.”