SFCS talks strategy at AGM

Jeff Green | Jun 24, 2010

At their 21st Annual General Meeting on June 22, David Townsend, the Executive Director of Southern Frontenac Community Services (SFCS), presented an overview of the strategic planning process the agency is undergoing.

But before Townsend made his presentation, Leslee Thompson, who has been the President and CEO of Kingston General Hospital for just over a year and has taken the hospital through to the launch of their own strategic plan earlier this month, delivered a keynote address.

Thompson said that one of the first things she did as CEO of the hospital was to embark on a campaign to find out what people’s expectations and opinions were of the hospital. And, much to her chagrin at times, she found out.

“Some of what people had to say about KGH was difficult to hear. ‘We want it to be a lot better.’ ‘We want it to be cleaner’. People were very comfortable about making those kinds of statements,” she said.

After a long process, and a lot of internal work, KGH has come to identify 4 strategic goals, focussing on patient experience, new models of care, patient-oriented research, and increasing the hospital’s focus on complex-acute and specialty care.

Thompson also talked about how the hospital is one part of the health care system, not an entity unto itself, and this is how it relates to community agencies like Southern Frontenac Community Services, which focus on keeping people well and cared for in the community, and away from expensive hospital care.

In discussing the SFCS strategic planning process, David Townsend talked about ensuring that all services must be provided “as efficiently and as effectively as possible. This requires that each decision ensures that there is a maximum value for dollar expended and that the service provided meets the intended need.”

The idea of tracking the outcomes from every dollar that is expended is something that the Southeast Local Health Integration Network (SELHIN) has been pushing for the past couple of years,

The SELHIN is a body within the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care that is the major funding source for both Southern Frontenac Community Services and Kingston General Hospital.

The SELHIN has also been pushing for co-operation among service delivery agencies and to that end David Townsend talked about SFCS undertaking a “review of all services and programs (children, families and seniors)” that the agency offers.

He said that as part of that review, “increased partnerships and coordination with other agencies and programs” will be explored in order to allow SFCS to “focus on those services that we can afford to deliver and deliver well.”

The next stage in the SFCS strategic planning process will be an all-day board workshop in early July.

The strategic plan will be presented to the public for comment in mid-October.

Anyone wishing to provide input to the process is encouraged to contact Joan Cameron, the SFCS Board chair at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 613-376-6477