Report to/Rapport au :

 

Ottawa Board of Health

Conseil de santé d’Ottawa

 

Monday July 11, 2011/le lundi 11juillet, 2011

 

Submitted by/Soumis par :

Dr./Dr Isra Levy,

Medical Officer of Health/Médecin chef en santé publique

 

Contact Person/Personne-ressource :

Esther Moghadam, Manager/Gestionnaire

Integration Quality and Standards/Intégration, Qualité et Normes

Ottawa Public Health/Santé publique Ottawa

613-580-2424, ext./poste 23789, Esther.Moghadam@ottawa.ca

 

City Wide / À l’échelle de la ville

ACS2011-OPH-IQS-0003

 

 

SUBJECT:

 

Ottawa Board of Health’s Strategic Priorities

 

OBJET :

 

Priorités stratégiques du Conseil de santé d’Ottawa

 

 

REPORT RECOMMENDATION

 

That the Board of Health for the City of Ottawa Health Unit:

  1. Adopt and approve the Ottawa Board of Health’s revised Vision, Mission, Framework, and Strategic Priorities and Objectives for 2011-2014 as outlined in Document 1 and 2; and
  2. Approve the Opportunities for Strategic Investment outlined in this report; and
  3. Direct the Board Secretary to forward the Opportunities for Strategic Investment to Ottawa City Council for its information to be included in the city’s budget discussions in October 2011.
 
RecommandationS du rapport

 

Que le Conseil de santé de la circonscription sanitaire de la ville d’Ottawa :

  1. adopte et approuve la vision, la mission et le cadre de référence modifiés ainsi que les priorités stratégiques et les objectifs du Conseil de santé d’Ottawa pour la période de 2011 à 2014, comme l’indiquent les documents 1 et 2; et
  2. approuve les possibilités d’investissement stratégique décrites dans ce rapport; et
  3. charge le secrétaire du Conseil de faire parvenir au Conseil municipal d’Ottawa, pour son information, les possibilités d’investissement stratégique décrites dans le présent rapport afin qu’elles soient incluses dans les discussions sur le budget de la Ville qui auront lieu en octobre 2011.

 

Background

 

In accordance with the Ontario Public Health Organizational Standards, boards of health in the Province of Ontario are required to establish strategic plans that respond to emerging public health trends and issues.

 

Since the establishment of Ottawa Board of Health’s new governance structure on April 28, 2011, the necessary processes and by-laws have been put in place to ensure the proper functioning of the Board, including a strategic priority setting exercise.

 

The Board has made strong progress in setting its strategic priorities for the term ending in 2014 and Documents 1 and 2 are representative of those priorities.

 

Concurrently, the City has undertaken a strategic planning process in which draft priorities have been identified, in the Term of Council Report (ACS2011-COS-ODP-0011). The City has also commenced its budget deliberations regarding strategic initiatives. Ottawa Public Health (OPH) staff is using the budget conditions included in the City’s Long-Range Financial Plan IV report (ACS2011-CMR-FIN-0029) to guide the development of public health's 2012 budget. As part of the City’s strategic planning process, the Board has been requested to provide its strategic priorities to Council (ACS2011-COS-ODP-0011), in order to inform the City’s 2012 budget process.

 

The purpose of this report is to provide the Board with an opportunity to adopt its Strategic Priorities document in advance of the July 13, 2011 City Council meeting.

 

The Ottawa Board of Health is responsible for advising City Council on health matters within its jurisdiction. As such, OPH staff has identified strategic investment opportunities that align with the City’s Strategic Priorities, specifically the Healthy and Caring Community Priority. Staff recommend that the strategic investment opportunities, which are outlined in this report, be provided to Council for its information.

 

DISCUSSION

 

Ottawa Public Health’s Strategic Plan 2011-2014

 

The Board’s goal is to lead OPH into a new way of doing business, one that is ever more responsive and attuned to local needs. The Board’s Strategic Plan will provide direction to staff and management and inform budget, policy and service priorities for the future.

 

The Board undertook a strategic planning process that included an orientation session and two strategic planning sessions. At these session, Board Members were provided with information on local health issues, environmental trends including provincial, community and organizational as well as the identification of opportunities and threats. The Board also reviewed Council’s draft priorities outlined in the Term of Council Report with the intention of finding congruencies with Council’s draft priorities.

 

A focused discussion at the Board’s June 15, 2011 strategic planning session resulted in a new vision, mission and a revised Ottawa Public Health Framework. As well, strategic priorities and thematic strategic objectives were identified. At a subsequent strategic planning session, a working group of Board Members further refined and validated the major elements of a Board of Health Strategic Plan.

 

The results of these sessions are presented in Document 1 (Ottawa Board of Health’s revised Mission, Vision, Strategic Priorities and Strategic Objectives) and Document 2 (Ottawa Public Health’s Framework) for consideration and adoption by the Board.

 

Once approved, staff will develop a strategic plan outlining how OPH will work over the Board’s term to achieve the Strategic Priorities and Objectives. Specifically, the plan will identify strategic initiatives that OPH will undertake and will outline how the Strategic Priorities will be integrated into OPH’s operational planning. To further develop the plan, community partners and staff will be engaged in planning, coordination and partnership initiatives. 

 

Specific targets will also be identified, which will ensure progress can be meaningfully measured, monitored and reported to the Board. This process aligns with the City’s new Integrated Planning Framework that uses a Balanced Scorecard as a strategic management approach. The further development of the Board of Health’s Strategic Plan will utilize a similar process.      

 

Recommended Opportunities for Strategic Initiatives for 2012

 

Alignment with the City’s Term of Council Strategic Priorities- Healthy and Caring Community

 

OPH’s services are representative of the City’s Healthy and Caring Communities Priority, as outlined in the Term of Council Report. The aim of this priority is to help all City of Ottawa residents enjoy a high quality of life and contribute to community well-being through healthy, safe, secure, accessible and inclusive places.  

 

Specifically, OPH has identified strategic initiatives that would address the Healthy and Caring Communities Priority 1 (HC1), which targets equity and inclusion for an aging and diverse population, as these initiatives are tailored to users of personal service settings, seniors and new parents. 

 

In particular, three strategic initiatives investment opportunities (one of them in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library), which align with the Healthy and Caring Communities Priority (HC1), have been identified. The proposed strategic initiative investments are:

 

•         Personal Service Setting Inspection Enhancement - This initiative seeks to increase the frequency of inspections of salons, tattoo parlours and spas where an increasing amount and variety of invasive body modification procedures such as piercings, tongue-splitting, subcutaneous implants, and tattoos are performed. Without proper hygiene and sterilization techniques, the risk of bacterial and fungal infections of nails or skin as well as infection with blood borne diseases such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C in these settings is real. This enhancement to services would seek to ensure compliance to proper techniques and avoid the cost of outbreak investigations which is resource intensive and time consuming (an additional $200K and 2 FTEs).

•         Seniors Community Caregiver Support – The creation of a comprehensive strategy to increase awareness and access to information and supports for informal caregivers in Ottawa. The focus would be on improving access to services, counselling on healthy aging and building and educating networks of support for families and friends caring for the elderly in a home setting. A comprehensive, modernised community caregiver guide (including e-modules) will be developed and launched at a Caregiver’s Conference, and a dedicated caregiver tele-nursing support service (email and phone) initiated (an additional $200K and 1 FTE).

 

Joint partnership with Ottawa Public Library

•         New Baby Express – This proposed new partnership is intended to connect new parents to Public Health Nurses to provide assessment of newborns’ growth and development and support for breastfeeding, and parenting skills, via library locations across the City both in urban and rural settings. Public Health Nurses will work with library staff and volunteers to build on library and OPH prenatal resources to support the transition to parenthood. Library staff are able to assist by engaging clients, particularly people with low literacy or language barriers, to link parents in need to outreach services on a regularly occurring schedule. This additional community support will help address funding gaps in universal home visiting programs (an additional $250K and 2 FTEs).

 
CONSULTATION

To inform the Board of Health in its deliberations on setting strategic priorities, OPH management provided Board Members with a summary of staff and partner input amassed over a two-year period, which identified areas of needs, recommendations for future focus and program improvements. Of note, over 60 partner consultations and two all-staff exercises were included in the report. 

 

LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

There are no legal impediments to implementing the recommendations in this report.

 

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Financial information provided throughout the report sets the context for OPH’s budget process and directions, which will be formally presented at a future Board of Health meeting.

 

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

Document 1- Ottawa Board of Health’s Vision, Mission, Strategic Priorities and Objectives for 2011-2014

Document 2- Ottawa Public Health’s Framework 2011 - 2014

 

DOCUMENTS À L’APPUI

Document 1- Vision, mission, priorités stratégiques et objectifs du Conseil de santé d’Ottawa pour 2011-2014

Document 2- Cadre stratégique 2011-2014 de Santé publique Ottawa

 
DISPOSITION

Ottawa Public Health will use this report and the supporting documents to develop a Board of Health Strategic Plan outlining how the Board and OPH staff will work with community partners over the term of the Board of Health to achieve the Strategic Priorities and Objectives. In addition, the Board Secretary will foward this report to Ottawa City Council for its information.