Corporate Priorities 2024-25

SickKids’ corporate priorities encompass the strategic activities that the organization will focus human, technological, and financial resources on in the fiscal year ahead. With our strategy in mind, priorities are developed in collaboration between SickKids’ leadership team and a broad range of stakeholders. Leaders work with their teams to align staff goals to these priorities. Below is an outline of the corporate priorities for fiscal year 2024-25.

Individualize Child and Youth Health Care

  • SickKids AI

    • Design and launch a comprehensive enterprise AI service
    • Deploy first phase of AI models at the point of impact
    • Advance foundations for AI service sustainability and scaling

  • Precision Child Health

    • Accelerate access to gene directed therapies for patients at SickKids
    • Increase the opportunity for patients to access existing, emerging and novel genomic technologies to enhance care
    • Implement the Pathways to Connect (PTC) Program

  • Clinical Research Transformation

    • Develop and implement a Clinical Research Governance Model and an Agile Clinical Research Strategy
    • Redevelop processes to streamline study intake, development and activation of clinical research studies
    • Transform the digital infrastructure to support clinical research at SickKids
    • Strengthen clinical research knowledge and expertise across SickKids​

Create a Seamless Child and Family Experience

  • Connected Care: Execute year one of the refreshed Connected Care strategy

    • Implement family caregiver self-scheduling for virtual connected care visits
    • Partner to deliver a new remote care management pathway that extends care for children with medical complexity and/or technology dependence outside the walls of SickKids
    • Build system capacity by expanding the delivery of innovative education and virtual consultation for more family caregivers and new healthcare provider groups

  • Virtual Care: Transition remote care management (RCM) projects from proof-of-concept to operations and implement 2–3 additional RCM use cases

    • Establish a global onboarding and operations plan, actualizing the RCM Framework, to scale sustainable RCM programs across SickKids​
    • Evaluate proof-of-concept RCM use cases
    • Implement and/or transition 2–3 new RCM use cases into Epic
  • Mental Health Strategy: Formally launch the MH Collaborative with CAMH by signing a joint MOU and completing the service mapping and design of a child and youth mental health information hub

  • Health Equity: Expand the Ontario Health Patient Health Equity Questionnaire to all clinical areas

Ensure Quality and Accountability in Everything We Do

  • Patient and Family Experience Strategy: Launch the Patient and Family Experience Strategy and advance year one implementation initiatives

    • Office of Patient, Family, and Community Engagement
    • Improve patient and family experience
    • Advance caregiver wellness initiatives

  • Access: Optimize timely access to surgical and interventional radiology procedures

  • Quality and Safety

    Implement improvements related to delays in recognition of critical illness and delay escalation or definitive management for life/limb threatening illness

    • Further spread and optimize the Sepsis bundle​
    • Support robust implementation of prior SSE corrective actions (e.g. policies and guidelines for management of life/limb threatening conditions)​
    • Test proactive safety huddles using new tools and technologies (ED escalation pathway for patient disposition, Hypercare, virtual meeting platforms)​
    • Explore use of AI tools​

    Enhance infusion safety

    • Phase 2 interoperability functionality of new infusion pumps to optimize safety features and reporting​
    • Continue to monitor and manage all infusion safety reports through the existing Infusion Safety Working Group​
    • Monitoring and coaching of line tracing initiatives​
    • Anticipation and management of supply chain interruption for infusion related products

    Enhance strategies for reporting and prevention of employee overexertion injuries

    • Continued learning from and implementation of initiatives in PICU (Pilot unit, championed by Ronni)​
    • Develop strategies to enhance reporting of employee OE injuries in the safety reporting system​
    • Engage leadership teams in other departments to develop and adopt prevention strategies (including but not limited to Rounding to Influence and Executive rounding)

  • Preventing and Managing Behavioural Escalations: Consolidated 24/25 efforts to improve safety by preventing and managing behavioural escalations will include:

    • Launch the Family Caregiver Behaviour Escalation Policy and develop a curriculum that supports implementation.

    • Continue to enhance implementation of the Comfort and Safety Bundle, which increases staff safety and reduces patient stress, in inpatient areas and expand to outpatient and ED.​

    • Provide access to behavioural PPE (BPPE) that helps to prevent harm and injury resulting from patient behavioural escalations.​

    • Engage in continuous improvement of our response to behavioural escalations through the Code White Review Committee.

    • Consolidate and simplify access to education and training related to behavioural health and safety.​

Unleash the talent of our people

  • Human Resources

    • Expand outreach and recruiting to a more diverse talent pool​
    • Enhance pay transparency on job postings​
    • Improve health and well-being for all staff through workload optimization, respectful communication, and professionalism​
    • Enhance employee self-service capabilities ​
    • Design an employee-centred human resources experience, spanning the employee lifecycle​
    • Enhance attraction and retention of physicians and all staff

  • Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Strategy

    • Develop a robust Indigenous Health Strategy, led by Indigenous staff, the EDI Office, and Indigenous Health Advisory Council​
    • Monitor and report on People Leaders’ EDI Foundations iLearn Completion Data in alignment with QIP​
    • Implement an EDI Academic Scholars Program (research, educational grant funding, symposium)​

Drive financial sustainability

  • Confirm incremental base funding indicative of programs/services unique to SickKids

  • Monitor cash/working capital and develop a refreshed financial sustainability plan (operating and capital plan)

  • Restructure and refine Project Horizon financial management process and controls

Build an academic health sciences centre for the future

  • Data Strategy

    • Operationalize Data Analytics Hub and Spoke support model
    • Enable adoption of Expedition data platform

  • Digital

    • Launch the Digital Transformation Strategy and governance structure and finalize a set of recommendations for a digital front door

  • IMT

    • Implement 24/25 roadmaps with robust cybersecurity foundations, optimizing investments and driving the delivery of innovative technologies

  • Project Horizon

    • Restructure/reorganize Project Horizon governance, organizational structure, and team processes​
    • Negotiate final phasing requirements for Early Works and initiate year one work plan activities​
    • Confirm process for Stage 2 refresh and approval for Project Horizon​