Grey Bruce’s largest hospital system’s new president and CEO is officially on the job.
Ann Ford stepped into the role October 30th, and has been familiarizing herself with Brightshores Health System.
Ford says she has worked in facilities operations, support services (housekeeping and transportation) legal, risk, strategy and development, information systems and capital development including the building of new hospitals.
“I have been in healthcare over 30 years now, starting off my career as a microbiologist actually, in a public health lab, and then over the years, after receiving my masters of health administration I moved on to more specific hospital work and over the years actually have had a lot of opportunity to work with really great people who have helped me along the journey of my career and given me opportunities to really get a nice breadth of experiences.”
She comes most recently from the GTA where she was Executive Vice President at William Osler Health System which consists of Brampton Civic Hospital, Etobicoke General and Peel Memorial Hospital. Ford was there for 12 years, and has now moved with her partner to Grey Bruce.
Ford says, “I think my mandate right now is to really, pick up the reins for what Gary Sims (outgoing CEO) and the exec team here had started and to continue down that path of some program growth, recruiting some additional physicians, recruiting additional nursing staff and allied health staff to all of our facilities to help support that mandate.”
She notes, “Brightshores has a really solid strategic plan and some directions that at this point, are placing the patients and our communities at the forefront as we are a growing organization. So there’s a lot of exciting growth plans on the way. We are looking at our specialty services and how we may actually increase the amount of service that we can provide.”
She says the vision for the regional network is growth and continuous improvement across its sites, adding that includes some partnerships like the creation of a new research institute. Brightshores has also recently joined the Southwestern Ontario Isotope Coalition.
When asked about the staffing challenges some rural hospitals are experiencing, and some frequent closures in neighbouring health systems, though not recently in the Brightshores system, Ford says, that’s a success story, explaining, “I know when I was first looking to apply for the job I was quite impressed that we have 24/7, 365 emergency rooms operating at all of our sites. That is something that is burned into us. We will do everything possible to make sure that those sites maintain those services. It does take resource, but I think the executive team here and the physicians really support that a lot.”
She says, “We have a really great group of physicians here who do travel around to all of our sites and provide services so they are keen to continue that way of providing services.” She adds, “I think it’s an incredibly important thing that we continue on with.”
Ford is spending the first part of her time as CEO visiting the various Brightshores sites.
The health system has hospitals in Markdale, Meaford, Owen Sound, Southampton, Wiarton and Lion’s Head. It’s also in the process of creating a wellness and treatment centre in Owen Sound.