Walking the same path as your staff with Paul Heinrich, President & CEO North Bay Regional Health Centre

Healthcare Change Makers

Paul is living proof that behind every healthcare leader is a nurse – in his case his mother and his wife. Their compassionate dedication to their craft has helped Paul develop a caring and thoughtful approach to leadership that’s helped him in posts he’s held in Calgary, Inuvik, Georgian Bay, and for the past 8 years in North Bay.

Paul is a true lifelong learner. He has the equivalent of more than 14 years of post-secondary education that includes two Masters Degrees, a Chartered Accountant designation, and he’s a certified health executive.

We first spoke with Paul early in 2020 just before the pandemic hit, and we were lucky to catch up with him again this past March. He reflected on how the north has traditionally been humble about its innovations, talents, and capabilities. But with the pandemic, he says there’s been a paradigm shift and people have started to appreciate the talents and resourcefulness of the north in a new way.

At one point in the pandemic, when the numbers of COVID positive critical care patients in southern Ontario was rising to dangerous levels, North Bay was officially added as a load sharing site. When we talked to Paul, they had not received any critical care patients, but since then, several have arrived and they expect to receive more until we’re through this current crisis period.

Quotables:

“I always reflect that I’ve been fortunate to have the insight and wise counsel of my wife and my mother. It’s helped me become a really considerate person who is thoughtful about the impact that the decisions I make have on our patients and staff.”

“All of our leaders at every level of management and even beyond, are trained in continuous quality improvement tools, creative problem-solving tools, and other leadership skills. That goes for not only our administrative leadership, but for our physician leadership group as well.”

“We’ve been working our team in overdrive going back even before the pandemic and I’m just so proud of how our teams responded.”

“It’s incredibly important that you don’t ask your staff to do something that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself or follow some protocol that you wouldn’t use yourself.”

“I started scheduling in meetings while I was on the trail and realized I could actually conduct business and get exercise. I discovered a fun thing – it’s hard to get stressed no matter what the conversation is when you’re in the middle of the forest.”

“Your team needs you to be well in order to make the right decisions.”

“There is so much capacity and leadership in the north. Our challenge is the connectivity and the large geography. I think the virtual care options, virtual communication we developed is going to build a stronger voice for the north.”

Mentioned in this Episode:

North Bay Regional Health Centre

ONE Initiative (Meditech Expanse)

West Parry Sound Health Centre

Sault Area Hospital

Duchesnay Falls

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