Welcome
Being a volunteer board member can be a rewarding and fulfilling part of a person's life. There is no question that the role is critical to the ongoing success of our community-based organizations and to the health of our communities as a whole. It is this belief that has compelled a few health system leaders to explore a new way for local health service provider boards to share, learn and grow together, in-service to our Health System.
Created in response to needs expressed by health service provider boards throughout Ontario this new website is designed to assemble and share practical information and governance tools with boards and board members that choose to participate by sharing themselves. When you register as a member board you will have full, one-stop access to helpful information about other health service provider boards and organizations in your community. You will also have access to an inventory of good governance practices, frameworks and tools assembled by leading governance experts and other practicing boards. By enhancing our relationships and knowledge of one another and by sharing good governance practices it is our hope to "raise the collective bar" on governing our health system.
Our Shared Opportunity
As board members and governors of health service providers we all share a few fundamental things:
- We all have an obligation to ensure that our organizations are doing their very best with the limited resources we have to serve our clients.
- We all have an obligation to ensure that our organizations carry out our missions in a fiscally and ethically responsible way.
- We all have an obligation to understand the risks and opportunities that face our organizations and to do our best to mitigate those risks and seize those opportunities.
None of this is new and as directors of our organizations we all take these responsibilities very seriously.
What is new for all of us is the Province's expectation that we will continue to do this while ADDING the obligation to ensure that our organizations are working more closely together; not only to improve our efficiencies, but to significantly enhance the quality and accessibility of the services we bring to our community.
The introduction of the Local Health Integration Network model in Ontario is THE WAY our province has chosen to do this. For our organizations, this means exploring new ways of working together and new ways of delivering services. And, since the inception of the LHIN model and Local Health System Integration Act in 2006 a great deal of progress has already been made at the operational level. Many of your executive directors and CEO's are already well versed in these new expectations and hopefully, are forging new relationships with other providers throughout the community and with the LHINs.
However, an equally great opportunity exists at the governance level of our organizations to explore new ways of learning, planning, monitoring and directing our respective organizations. By taking a "systems view" of health services, we as governors can redefine and reshape how services will be delivered in our communities. This is our greatest opportunity and perhaps our greatest challenge and obligation as directors.
Unlike many other provinces, Ontario has chosen and stuck to its guns to leave local governance in place; not because it's easier but because it's perhaps the best way to ensure that the health system that's built is the health system that's right for our communities.
While the LHIN legislation and Provider Service Agreements clearly define what we can, can’t and must do together, it is we as PEOPLE and fellow GOVERNORS that will choose together, through conversations and relationships, just how well we make this work.
So, in the spirit of evolving this conversation and our relationships together, we invite you to join in this journey to create and govern our Health System, Together.
To become a member board or inquire about this innovative new portal please click here to contact us.