2017 Minister’s Medal
Yesterday, I had the privilege to present the 5th annual Minister’s Medal awards at Health Quality Transformation, alongside the Minister of Health, Dr. Eric Hoskins, and Dr. Joshua Tepper, CEO of Health Quality Ontario.
The Minister’s Medal is a competitive award program that recognizes excellent work done by health care partners across the province. The individuals who won this year were recognized for the truly inspiring work they are doing to engage with patients and families in the design and delivery of health care programs and services, while promoting value and quality in our health care system.
The theme this year was Patients as Partners, which focused on the importance of addressing local health priorities and system issues in collaboration with the people they matter to most — patients, caregivers and their families.
Excitingly, this year a new award category was introduced to recognize a patient, family member or caregiver who enhanced patient engagement within their community. Congratulations to Margo Twohig from the Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), the first winner of this new and important award. Margo has been dedicated to patient engagement since 2012, and is currently the Co-Chair of the Patient and Family Advisory Council at North York General Hospital.
Congratulations to this year’s Team Medal award winner, Hamilton Health Sciences’ (HHS) Hospital Without Walls team, within the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN. This team worked to transform where and how it provided care to vulnerable and under-served populations, with their ultimate goal being to improve the overall management of care for patients and their families in their community.
The 2017 Individual Champion Minister’s Medal was awarded to Regan Anderson, from the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN. Regan is the Chief Executive Officer of Wayside House of Hamilton, a community-based, not-for-profit charitable organization that is committed to residential addiction treatment and supportive housing for males and transitional male youth.
Regan is committed to partnering with his patients and their families to build strong relationships, and to ensure that his patients have the support they need to be successful.
In addition to the medal winners, Ontario is recognizing 14 Honour Roll members for their exceptional work in delivering high-quality health care for patients and families.
