Creating and sustaining value: building a culture of continuous improvement.

In 2011, the Toronto East General Hospital (TEGH) began its journey towards developing a culture of continuous improvement. TEGH evolved to an organization-wide improvement system through a commitment to fiscal responsibility, practical innovation, team-based performance management, and daily management systems. This culture enabled the TEGH to achieve the lowest Emergency Department wait times for admitted patients in its local health integration network and reduce length of stay for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by 46%.

Strategic management system in a healthcare setting--moving from strategy to results.

One of the historical challenges in the healthcare system has been the identification and collection of meaningful data to measure an organization's progress towards the achievement of its strategic goals and the concurrent alignment of internal operating practices with this strategy. Over the last 18 months the Toronto East General Hospital (TEGH) has adopted a strategic management system and organizing framework that has led to a metric-based strategic plan. It has allowed for formal and measurable linkages across a full range of internal business processes, from the annual operating plan to resource allocation decisions, to the balanced scorecard and individual performance evaluations.