Barb Collins

Please check back often to get the latest news, including a new feature: Barb's Blog; by our hospital's COO and redevelopment lead Barb Collins.

Barb Collins is Humber River's Chief Operating Officer and our corporate leader for our redevelopment project.Barb's Blog will provide project updates and her commentary on the project as it moves forward.

Larry Rook and Jeannine Gourlie, together with Barb Collins (Humber River Regional Hospital) will be presenting at the Strategic Capital Planning for Healthcare Infrastructure conference sponsored by The Canadian Institute on December 3rd 2008.

Top Three Overall 5K Run Winners in the Women's and Men's Categories with Dr. Rueben Devlin, CEO & President, HRRH and Barbara Collins, Vice President, Planning & Support Services, HRRH.

"We know that this is a big change, and will take some getting used to by everyone, patients and visitors alike," said Barb Collins, Vice President of Planning and Support Services for Humber River."But it is clear that using the old ER as the main entry into the hospital has impacted patient privacy and impeded emergency personnel, and the matter needed to be addressed."

Collins explained that "the expansion of the Emergency Department has presented us with the right opportunity to make this change.Work on the old ER has started and will take several months to complete, and we would have to redirect patient and visitor access at this point in the project anyway."

"We will post appropriate way-finding signs outside and inside the hospital, and extra volunteers and security will be on hand to help people find their way inside the hospital without problems," Collins concluded.

Humber River Chief Operating Officer Barb Collins said, however, that having nurses prepare the machines was not an uncommon practice in the healthcare industry.

"This change is modelled the same as the care provided in other dialysis centres," she said."Humber River will continue to provide our usual level of quality care."

Collins also stated that the changes were necessary in keeping with the objectives of the Ministry of Health.The hospital was required by law to balance its budget, which was facing a deficit of roughly $23 million in 2005-06.Humber River offered a number of dialysis assistants voluntary retirement packages, and those who did not accept or were not eligible for the packages are still working in other hospital departments, she said.

"The changes in our dialysis unit are consistent with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care transformation agenda for healthcare," Collins said.

HRRH president and CEO Dr. Rueben Devlin, COO Barb Collins and Chief Nursing Officer Marg Czaus presented the hospital's findings to Campbell and other members of the SARS Commission on Wednesday, reporting on the hospital's success in containing the disease.
...
Collins said that the hospital's techniques in helping halt the spread of SARS could be seen as a valuable first step in dealing with future outbreaks of similar diseases.

"It became clear that emergency communication and leadership models, as well as public health command and control processes need to be refined to become more responsive, more inclusive and more reflective of operational reality," she said.