PHC Med Staff

Our goals:

• Make every interaction with the people we serve an opportunity for learning, research and continuous improvement.
• Advance appropriately governed data, research, learning – and unlearning – to support PHC to be in right relations with, and deliver high quality care to, Indigenous Peoples.
• Nurture and support innovative and disruptive ideas that transform care in BC and around the world, especially for people with complex medical and social service needs.
• Ensure that each of us understands that we have the responsibility and the opportunity to improve our services.
• Be an education leader among Canadian academic teaching hospitals and prioritize the training of the next generation of health care professionals.

Why this?

A “learning organization” is one that puts emphasis on the learning of its people and continuously transforms itself. During the strategic planning consultations, many of us voiced the desire to put more emphasis on learning and innovation. Many of us also wanted to clarify the process of bringing forward new ideas and potential changes so that everyone has this opportunity and feels empowered to do so.

Another key ingredient of learning is… failing. Yes, failing. Because with every setback comes the opportunity to reflect, learn and grow. So this direction is also about creating the space for us to take calculated risks in an effort to dream up disruptive, even transformational ideas. Given our size, and our ability to be more agile than larger health organizations, we aspire to become the “go-to” place to prototype new ideas, incubate novel concepts, and test creative theories.

Given that aspiration, this strategic direction also speaks to the added emphasis we will place on research, innovation, and teaching, which all go hand-in-hand with being a “learning organization.” We have an extraordinary track record of research and discovery — an enterprise that we plan to scale up and bring to every corner of Providence.

What will change?

To start, we will begin to see how good suggestions — large and small — for improving our care, services and our environment are brought forward and acted upon. The path to these improvements will be more visible and we will celebrate the people bringing ideas forward.

We will have better methods to translate the results of our research into the care we provide. And we will involve even more students in our research, sparking additional passion for learning and growth!

What’s the bottom line?

We believe that improvement and innovation isn’t a department, it’s a mindset. We’re a learning organization where continuous improvement, research, education and innovation are central to our Mission. We will create an environment where this is the expectation of, and opportunity for every single person at Providence.

How are Medical Staff involved?

We are fostering an environment of continuous learning, implementing ideas that transforms health care, and positively impacts future health care professionals. We want medical staff to engage with us to help us shape these goals! Some of the ideas we are looking at include:

• Re-launch PHC Research Institute as an engine room for research and innovation.
• Launch the Supercluster projects.
• A plan to make PHC the innovation/phenotyping and big data hub.

Interested in joining our discussions?  Connect with us here >

What is our vision for Innovation?

Innovation Goals, Services and Guiding Principles

Providence is aiming to develop sustainable innovation practices within PHC that:

• Promote and inspire a culture of continuous learning and continuous improvement,
• Support our transformation and transition to the new St. Paul’s Hospital, and
• Provide a pathway for returns to support future innovation at PHC through strategic investments and partnerships.

We are developing plans to build innovation services including:

• Support for PHC transformation, quality improvement and redevelopment goals/targets
• Partnership matching (private / public sector)
• Entry point to Canadian Digital Technology Supercluster (with St. Paul’s Foundation)
• Building internal innovation capacity
• Developing an innovation ecosystem
• Developing an innovation funding model

Our guiding principles are:

• We practice evidence-based innovation
• Our leadership is collaborative; we lead without owning
• The impact of the innovation that we lead is sustainable
• Innovation efforts lead to improved health and economic outcomes

What is the Centre for Innovation?

Innovation Ecosystem (Centre for Innovation / Innovation Hub): Providence is pursuing a vision to build a hub where PHC staff can engage innovators, entrepreneurs, evaluators, patients and design thinkers if they have an idea or a problem to solve and become inspired, and supported to innovate. This will evolve over time, along with opportunities for physicians to plug in.

What is the Technology Supercluster?

Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster (CDTS) is a unique transformative opportunity to partner with industry to design, develop and accelerate innovative solutions that improve the lives of British Columbians. PHC, supported by the St. Paul’s Foundation, is a founding member.

We are building a simulation program at PHC that will foster a safe, confidential and collaborative environment dedicated to enhancing patient and learner safety.

• Simulation will be utilized to practice clinical skills, decision making and health system outcomes while building stronger inter-professional work teams. The program will support inter-professional education, continuing competency development and research across the continuum of care throughout Providence Health Care.
• Our vision is to embed simulation based learning into inter-professional clinical education, orientation and training programs when appropriate that prepare clinicians to respond to and manage complex patient care situations in collaboration with other disciplines using best practices, efficient use of resources and effective communication strategies.

What we do

The Providence Health Care Research Institute (PHCRI) is the research engine for Providence Health Care (PHC) that nurtures new ideas and transforms them into technologies, strategies and policies that directly impact and enhance patient care. PHCRI is home to several internationally renowned research centres and a number of active clinical research programs. The scope of research carried out by PHCRI investigators includes laboratory, clinical, health services, population health, outcomes and prevention, and policy development. Integrated with patient care and teaching, research spans more than 30 specialty areas including HIV/AIDS, heart and lung, kidney, mental health, substance use, gastroenterology, hematology, orthopedics, emergency medicine and others.

Our website

The Providence Health Care Research Institute website (www.providenceresearch.ca) provides an overview of the world-class research conducted at Providence Health Care and the health impact of that research. Visitors to the site can search a Researcher Database to find opportunities to collaborate, download up-to-date forms required to conduct research at PHC, and learn how the PHCRI Research Facilitation Office provides support in HR, Finance, Ethics Reviews, Contracts and Grant Administration, and Communication.

Research and the new St. Paul's

The new St. Paul’s Hospital provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Providence Health Care to cement its status as the innovation engine for exceptional patient care in B.C., Canada and the world.

Co-located on the health campus, the Clinical Support and Research Centre (CSRC) will be a place for discovery, collaboration and learning, attracting the best and brightest staff, care providers, scientists, and industry partners to deliver excellence in care, research and innovation.

The CSRC will allow the new health campus to fully integrate patient care with discovery, research, innovation and teaching so St. Paul’s continues to be on the forefront of medical breakthroughs with global impact.