SUDBURY—There is a new hand at the helm of the Northeast Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), the organization that oversees the delivery of health and home care services in Northeastern Ontario, including Manitoulin Island, and that hand is guided by the determined focus on a client centric vision of the new CEO.
“I am definitely not in my 30s,” laughed Jérémy Stephenson when teased about his youthful appearance in published photographs. Although he was not prepared to give his actual age, he noted that he is old enough to have children in high school.
He holds a Master of Health Administration, a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy from the University of Ottawa, as well as an Administrator Certificate in long-term care from the Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes and Services for Seniors. Mr. Stephenson is a member of the Canadian College of Health Leaders and the American College of Health Executives. He has held numerous positions in the Ontario Health sector, including: COO of the St. Francis Memorial Hospital in Barry’s Bay, a senior planner with the Champlain Local Health Integration Network and Executive Planning Advisor and Assistant to the president and CEO at the Hôpital Montfort in Ottawa. He has been a member of the Ontario Hospital Association’s (OHA) Small, Rural and Northern Hospitals Provincial Leadership Council. In 2012, Mr. Stephenson was awarded the OHA Small, Rural and Northern Healthcare Excellence Award “in recognition of St-Francis Memorial Hospital’s innovative leadership in collaborating and establishing partnerships to expand and improve health services in the Madawaska Valley.” He was also recently awarded the National Award from the Canadian College of Health Leaders.
In addition to those accolades and accomplishments, Mr. Stephenson is fluently bilingual, the proud father of four children and is reportedly very involved in community life, including volunteering and coaching sport leagues, as well as remaining involved with the University of Ottawa MHA program and provincial leadership committees.
“I am very blessed with this opportunity,” said the new LHIN CEO, noting that heading up the LHIN offers an opportunity to “be a champion for what I hold dear and truly believe in.” Mr. Stephenson went on to add that he is thankful that he has a group of “very strong individuals that I am blest to work with.”
Mr. Stephenson describes himself as “a visionary person” who is “not afraid to make mistakes.” If someone is prepared to try out new and innovative approaches to finding solutions to the challenges facing health care delivery today then there will be mistakes made, but in addition to learning from those mistakes, there will be successes. It is those successes that will move health care delivery in the North forward.
The CEO cited team members like Dr. Paul Preston, vice president clinical at the Northeast LHIN as providing invaluable experience and knowledge. Dr. Preston has practiced in Northeastern Ontario for more than 30 years in a variety of roles, including hospital emergency department doctor, chief of primary care at the North Bay Regional Health Centre, family physician at the Blue Sky Family Health Team and a medical director in long-term care working with the frail elderly. Dr. Preston is the province’s first full-time clinical lead at a LHIN.
Mr. Stephenson said that a key part of his work going forward will be to make himself visible to those working on the front lines of health care and in receipt of services across the Northeast LHIN’s catchment region. “I want to spend more time with boots on the ground,” he said.
There is plenty of ground to cover with those boots, particularly as the LHIN now oversees the work of the Community Care Access Centre, providing home care to clients across the northeast. If there is one area that sees a lot of client-based concerns, it is in the realm of home care.
“I hear those concerns as well,” said Mr. Stephenson. One of the earliest issues he has identified is that of staff shortages. “Not having enough staff, particularly personal support workers,” he said. But he notes that the solutions have to be “more than just bandaids” if the health care needs of Northerners are to be met. “I want to sit down with our partners, particularly our clients—because in the end it is they who know what is best,” he said.
For his part, Mr. Stephenson sees his role as “providing the vision” to assist the LHIN’s partners to find and meet those solutions.
Among the key challenges facing the Northeast LHIN is the vast geography that encompasses the catchment area, a factor of which Mr. Stephenson says he is very aware.
“But there are no more excuses,” he said. “I am not interested in giving excuses anymore. We have a good team here.”
As to what those solutions will be, the jury is still out.
“We will have this conversation again when I hit day 100,” he said. “We will talk again then.”
In the meantime, Mr. Stephenson said he will be providing a strong voice for the North. “Every day when I am in Toronto I have been making the point that we have a lot more territory to cover,” he said. Toronto, in its turn, has been listening. “They get it,” he said. “Equity is the way you have to do it. I am confident we have the foot in the door.”
“Where a health professional may be able to see three patients in an hour in centres like Toronto, Ottawa or Hamilton, ours may be only able to see one,” he said.
In addition to a huge geographical region, the Northeast also has a large Francophone component and a huge Indigenous population. The region’s social demographics are different, and the North has some of the largest social issues to contend with—including high levels of tobacco consumption, diabetes and poorer life expectancies.
“I had the luxury of building a health system,” noted Mr. Stephenson of the past work he has done with the most relevance to his current position. “Not simply building a hospital, but creating the systems to provide health care locally and delivering health care locally.”
He said that he envisions Manitoulin becoming a mini-hub in delivering health services and that will involve a close integration and collaboration between all of the partners in delivering health services. That is where his key strengths come in.
“I build bridges,” he said. “That is the kind of leadership style I see as being needed in these days. There are tough times ahead of us, and tough times behind us.” Mr. Stephenson said that his predecessors built a solid foundation from which he can build upon. “They did great work,” he said.
Patients in the North deserve the same kind of access to health services as those in the south, he pointed out, but delivering those services presents unique challenges that will require more than just money if those challenges are to be overcome.
Whatever those solutions are, they won’t be uncovered by sitting in an office in Sudbury or Toronto, he notes. “Part of the job in the North is travelling,” he said. “It is what it is.”
Mr. Stephenson said he was looking forward to travelling to Manitoulin and spending time on the Island becoming familiar with the health services and LHIN partners here.
