KGH strikes Silver in this year’s OHA Quality Healthcare Workplace Awards

Kingston General Hospital is celebrating Silver in the latest Quality Healthcare Workplace Awards. The annual awards were handed out at the Ontario Hospital Association's HealthAchieve conference earlier this month in Toronto.

"A silver designation is great news for KGH as it is recognition of the work underway to help us achieve our goal of being one of the best places to work," says Micki Mulima, Director of Healthy Workplace Services.

The provincial awards were launched in 2010 and are designed to help organizations evaluate, learn and improve by focusing on the key drivers of employee and organizational health.

In our submission, we highlighted our recent focus on supporting staff learning at all levels. A big part of this effort was the addition of 235 courses to our Learning Management System (LMS). These professional development courses are open to all staff and include such topics as communication, project management, and managing stress.

An important new mandatory course was also added to the LMS this year called 'Together We're Better' that teaches intercultural competency to broaden the concept of culture and improve communication. In addition, we hosted a series of workshops for leaders that gave them awareness and tools to deal with issues relating to psychological health with a resource card for staff.

Each year, the awards also give us a look at what other hospitals are doing, along with feedback and a roadmap for what to focus on next.

"We are now in the midst of assessing and acting on the many things people told us in the Staff Engagement Survey," says Mulima. "One thing we know is access to education and training, and promoting health and wellness are very important to people at KGH."

That's why we have been busy creating a more robust health and wellness program. Already, it includes the launch of new fitness classes at KGH and a website, www.kghwellness.ca, devoted to supporting staff physical and mental wellness. A new online tool 'Feeling Better Now' for staff mental health will also be rolling out shortly.

In addition to the Wellness Centre at KGH, a new volunteer committee is being created that will be open to staff who are interested in advising KGH on health and wellness initiatives, and employee recognition.

For more information, check out www.kghwellness.ca