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Message from the CEO, September 18, 2007


A few weeks ago, we carried a wonderful story in our publication for staff, families and clients, Baycrest Matters, about a man named Seymour Hersch, whose late wife wrote a special poem to honour Baycrest nurses. The poem is called Nurses are People Too:

Honour their care
Whenever they're there,
Be kindly, be polite,
They deserve your respect,
Don't be uptight.
Don't treat them like servants,
Let them do what they do,
And always remember,
Nurses are people too.


After the article came out in the publication, Mr. Hersch took the time to write me and share his sentiments on the care he himself received at Baycrest. He talked about our team being the most professional and caring group he had ever seen and concluded his letter by saying "It is a great honour to have an organization like yours in the community."

Despite the fact that I have only been CEO at Baycrest for ten short weeks, I can tell you that Mr. Hersch is right. We do have a great team and a great organization and I feel very privileged to be working with so many talented and committed individuals and supported by such a strong Baycrest community including families and clients.

Together our job is to build on Baycrest's strengths and to identify what needs to be changed. That is in fact the goal of the Listening Tour which is currently under way and  will ultimately  include 1000 people--staff, clients, families--giving input on what we need to preserve and what we need to strengthen. I have already met with the Councils of the Home and the Hospital and in the future intend to hold a Family Town Hall to allow for more families to dialogue as part of this process.

The Listening Tour is clearly critical because it informs us of what you, our clients and families, believe we should preserve and change. In addition to having that information, we must find ways to answer other questions that are critical to our success including:

  • How does our care delivery compare against best practices anywhere?
  • Are we using our limited resources effectively and efficiently?
  • Are we making full use of our research activities to influence the best possible care delivery?
  • Are we collaborating effectively enough across all of our disciplines?
  • Are we adequately using information/data to inform us about how we are performing to help us to do even better?
  • Are we working hard enough to attract the very best staff we can to join us at Baycrest—people like us that are committed to improving the lives older persons on this campus as well as around the world.

With such an in-depth assessment we are setting the stage for fulfilling our mandate of bringing clinical care, education and research together; using this campus as a place where we can learn, better than anyone else can possibly learn to maximize the quality of life for older people, particularly those whose quality of life is impacted by dementia, stroke, depression or sustained frailty.

There are no other organizations in the world that have the ability at this moment to fulfill this mandate. Some have well developed clinical centres, but they lack the research component. Some are free-standing research institutes but, they don't have the commitment to clinical and educational excellence that we have here at Baycrest, or the strong connection to community.

I look forward to hearing  from you in the near future on how we can take full advantage of what really sets up apart. The date of the Family Town Hall will be announced on this site and throughout Baycrest in the near future.


Bill Reichman

Baycrest President & CEO