Progress Through Partnerships

Wednesday, 20. October 2010

Debby Carlson, Chair of the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation Board of Directors, highlighted the importance of collaboration in the evolution of patient care excellence at the Royal Alexandra Hospital during our recent Chair's Dinner, held October 5 at the Westin Hotel, Edmonton.

Ladies and Gentlemen…Our theme this evening is Progress Through Partnerships.

Partnerships are powerful.

In the non-profit sector – and within healthcare in particular – partnering is the most effective way to leverage resources, reach out to communities and re-vigor  fundraising campaigns.

By effective partnering, the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation is able to play a large and robust role in the evolution of excellence in patient care.

No where has this been more evident than in the opening of the Lois Hole Hospital for Women in the spring.  Working closely with the Alberta Government and Alberta Health Services, we celebrated several key achievements:

First: Alberta Health Services’ improving access and excellence in care for women in Edmonton, northern Alberta and Canada’s Northern Territories;

Second: The enhancements brought to the hospital by Donors to our Foundation’s capital campaign which raised more than $20 million dollars;

And third: We honoured the memory of our former lieutenant governor, the Hon. Lois Hole, and her legacy of hope and caring.

As our Foundation continues to develop new campaigns that further enhance the Royal Alexandra Hospital, we recognize Alberta Health and Wellness Minister, the Honourable Gene Zwozdesky, Alberta Health Services Chair Mr. Ken Hughes and Vice President of the Royal Alexandra Hospital Ms. Joanna Pawlyshyn, for being excellent partners.

Our partnerships are not only with government.

We also enjoy wonderful partnerships with our peers in the not-for-profit sector.

And we believe it is these partnerships that mark the difference between achieving incrementally and exponentially.

These partnerships bring creative people and their good ideas together.

Prostate Health
A perfect example of this is our collaboration with the Alberta Cancer Foundation and the University Hospital Foundation in the fight against prostate cancer, a disease that affects one in every seven men.

Together, we have raised (so far – the campaign is not over), more than $23 million in a $26 million dollar effort.

With leaders like Frank Sojonky, Irv Kipnes, CJ Wood, and our board members John Day and Ron Hodgson, we know that a rapid access clinic will be built in our city, offering treatment to the thousands of men diagnosed with prostate cancer every year.

Regional Eye Centre
Many of you know that the Royal Alexandra Hospital is home to the Regional Eye Centre.

Our Foundation has been a funding partner with Lions Clubs International in support of the Regional Eye Centre, a teaching and research centre for the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta.

We’d like to thank Dr. Patti Hill from Lions Clubs International for this outstanding partnership which, over the years, has resulted in donors raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for medical research and the development of new surgical treatments for diseases of the eye.

Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute
Ladies and Gentlemen, they say the health of a community can be determined by the health of its women and children.

The Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute, led by Dr. Po-yin Cheung, is a multidisciplinary team made up of 300 leading researchers, clinician scientists, healthcare professionals and academics whose mission is to improve health outcomes for women and their babies in our city, our province, and our country.

Our Foundation has worked closely with the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation to develop a funding partnership that supports the work of the institute.

Thank you to Dallas Smith, former Chair of the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, for helping to forge a strong relationship in support of women’s and children’s health.

Ovarian Cancer Research Chairs
Earlier, I mentioned the Alberta Cancer Foundation and our collaboration on the prostate health campaign.

Our partnership with the Alberta Cancer Foundation, represented here by Bob Bentley, also includes the creation of a new $5 million chair in ovarian cancer research.

Our two Foundations are working closely with the Dean from the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Dr. Philip Baker, in the recruitment of this research chair.

Ovarian cancer is a silent and deadly opponent. Far too often, it is victorious and another mom, sister, or daughter is lost.

We look forward to giving all of you a more formal announcement about our collaborative effort, very soon.

Full House Lottery
Our partnership with the University Hospital Foundation is one that goes beyond the collaborative effort of any single campaign.

By working together, the University Hospital Foundation and our Foundation have built one of the largest home lotteries in the province. Full House Lottery has raised more than $45 million dollars in the past 17 years. Virtually every area of care at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and the University of Alberta Hospital has benefited from this partnership.

Multicultural Heart Health
One of our newest partnerships is one that promotes heart health.

Together with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, our Foundation and cardiologists at the CK Hui Heart Centre have launched the Multicultural Heart Health Awareness Program, an outreach program aimed at educating diverse populations about the signs, symptoms and prevention of cardiovascular disease.

We’d like to thank Tony Connelly, a director with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, for being an excellent partner, and Dr. PoKee Cheung, one of our leaders in cardiology at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, for working tirelessly with our two Foundations in the development and rollout to our first multicultural population, the Chinese Community of Edmonton.

Dr. Cheung will tell you that when a cardiologist treats heart disease, he is helping one patient at a time. But when, as partners and collaborators, we promote heart health, awareness, and lifestyle, we help the whole community.

Knowledge, like a good partnership, is a powerful tool.

Alberta Bone and Joint Insitute
Our most recent partnership, which Andrew mentioned earlier, is a province-wide first for our Foundation.

This latest collaboration, with the Alberta Bone & Joint Institute, demonstrates how our Foundation’s role continues to evolve and is a powerful indicator of where we are going as an organization.

A special welcome to the Chair of the Alberta Bone and Joint Institute, Ian Robinson, who is here with us tonight from Calgary.

Working together, we are building upon the first, integrated, province-wide network for bone and joint care -- the gold standard of provincial-wide care for all Albertans that is accessible and resource-efficient for the long-term in our publicly funded system.

And I am very pleased to represent the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation on the Bone and Joint Institute…. joining Ian, as well as Calgary’s Dr. Cy Frank, Executive Director on the Institute’s Board of Directors, and our own Dr. Don Dick, who is vice Chair of the Board of Directors.

More than three million Canadians endure chronic bone and joint pain.

Bone and joint health problems are not restricted to any one segment of the population. Those afflicted can range from children who fall off their bikes, to young adults with lingering sports injuries, to older adults battling debilitating bone and joint conditions.

We’re very proud of this new partnership, and we hope our community of donors will also support our role within this consortium of scientists, orthopedic surgeons, rheumatologists, kinesiologists, and biomedical engineers who bring diverse technologies and perspectives together for all Albertans.

Ladies and gentlemen, we’re immensely proud of our partners, and we hope they are proud of us too.

These partnerships are easy to maintain. After all, we have similar goals and share the same ideals. We want to make things better. We want to improve health care for Albertans.

And, at the end of the day, partnerships are also friendships.

So, to close, on behalf of our board of directors, I salute you: Our friends and our partners – province wide and right here in our city.

I salute our partnerships. And I salute the progress that our partnerships will continue to bring.

Thank you.