Manitoba's Top Employers

19 TOP PROFESSIONALS WANT TO WORK WHERE THEY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE; WHERE THE LEADERSHIP EMPOWERS ITS WORK FORCE TO INNOVATE. A CULTURE OF OPENNESS TO CHANGE AND INNOVATION IS ONE QUALITY THAT HAS MADE SEVEN OAKS GENERAL HOSPITAL A TOP MANITOBA EMPLOYER SEVERAL TIMES AND A THREE�TIME TOP 100 EMPLOYER IN CANADA. That's making a real difference by inspiring improvement for everything from freeing up nurses to spend more time at the patient bed side, to tightening up processes to drive down emergency wait times, to achieving some of the shortest turnaround times for hip fracture surgery in Canada. And more recently it has attracted a small corps of medical specialists who provide patient care but also research ways to detect chronic disease earlier, to change processes to provide more and better care options, and how to help patients prevent their disease from progressing. Openness to put research into action is what brought Research Director Paul Komenda to work at the hospital. "The leadership here understands how to support innovation and knowledge, but also translating that knowledge directly into patient care. That's the kind of research we do," Dr. Komenda said. Dr. Komenda and two other University of Manitoba affiliated specialists in kidney care hold multi-year research grants totalling a few million dollars and supervise several research managers and students with training in epidemiology, biostatistics, economics, and data management. They have worked on making the case for best practice home dialysis for patients with kidney failure, a large study to screen for chronic disease in northern and remote communities, and work to predict and quantify risk of kidney failure. The research is based in sophisticated analysis of healthcare databases that include diagnosis, lab test results, treatment and outcomes. This "big data" approach allows researchers to test the relative effectiveness of treatments, understand healthcare costs and processes better and learn how and when to focus their interventions. For example, a study led by Seven Oaks researcher Dr. Navdeep Tangri created a model for predicting risk of kidney failure by examining the digital health records of thousands of patients. That model isolated the lab test values that determined whether chronic disease would lead to kidney failure, which is devastating for patients and costly for the healthcare system. That model is now used to allocate specialist time, and to teach patients how to manage and reduce their risk. Research at Seven Oaks is now getting a boost with the launch of Manitoba's newest research institute, the Seven Oaks Hospital Chronic Disease Innovation Centre (CDIC). Over time the CDIC will recruit additional medical specialists in diabetes, heart and lung disease, the conditions responsible for the majority of hospital admissions in Canada. The CDIC will work closely with the Wellness Institute which is a leader in prevention and management of chronic disease, with family physicians at Seven Oaks and in the community and with healthcare staff that provide patient care at the hospital. The CDIC will also support continuing innovation in Seven Oaks Emergency Department. One innovation has been led by another kidney specialist, Dr. Sean Armstrong, who has perfected a new procedure for installing abdominal catheters with a local anesthetic to start patients on a home form of hemodialysis, instead of waiting several weeks for a surgical slate. He is now a global expert teaching the procedure to doctors in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil and Australia. "We' re interested in amassing and disseminating knowledge by publishing, but we're very committed to direct care improvement as well innovation in medical devices and drugs," Komenda said. "We couldn't do that without the culture of innovation that makes Seven Oaks a Top Employer." P O W E R E D B Y S E V E N O A K S G E N E R A L H O S P I TA L Changing the way healthcare is delivered "We're interested in amassing and disseminating knowledge by publishing, but we're very committed to direct care improvement as well innovation in medical devices and drugs." From left, Dr. Claudio Rigatto, Dr. Paul Komenda and Dr. Navdeep Tangri. Submitted photo SEVEN OAKS GENERAL HOSPITAL Attracting healthcare professionals who make a difference MANITOBA'S TOP EMPLOYERS

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