Orillia hospital considering changes that could impact generations

Orillia's hospital is considering a major shakeup that could affect generations.

Last month, Soldiers' Memorial Hospital held its annual Fireside Chat, an event that serves as a venue to both inform and hear from the community. While plans for the hospital's redevelopment were expected to take center stage, details of a possible plan to shake up the hospital's board garnered much attention.

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Hospital leadership is continuing to eliminate the board's current paid membership model. The hospital comprises 12 elected voting members, three ex-officio voting members and five ex-officio non-voting members.

It also includes approximately 400 community members who purchase a membership, giving them a vote to shape the board of directors at the annual general meeting. These can be purchased for $25 for the year or $200 for a lifetime appointment.

However, the hospital is considering eliminating the paid membership option, something most other hospitals in the province have already done.

"It seems like now is the right time to review some of the bylaw changes and address the paid corporate membership model," said Lindsay Alston, the hospital's chief of staff and a non-voting ex-officio board member. "The physician leadership thinks everyone should have a voice, not just those who pay for a membership, and that's why we're supportive of the board's decision to look at this."

Elected board voting members are appointed using a skill-based approach with a comprehensive nomination process including a formal review, interviews and committee recommendation. Paid members, who go through no vetting process, can be appointed to a voting position so long as they are nominated by three other members, which the hospital hopes to change.

"We are currently the only hospital in our region that has a paid corporate membership model," said Alston. "It does date back to, I believe, 100 years ago, before the time of universal healthcare, so certainly we do recognize that best practice is moving away from a paid membership model."

Out of other medium-sized hospitals in Ontario, only Winchester District Memorial, located southeast of Ottawa, has the paid membership model. All others have eliminated it, including Georgian Bay General, Collingwood General & Marine, and the Muskoka Algonquin Health Centre.

According to Mayor Don McIsaac, himself a voting ex-officio board member, the review of the bylaws comes ahead of the implementation of the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act later this year. However, the mayor has concerns with the plan as presented.

"Soldiers' Memorial Hospital has had a long relationship with the community in this fashion for over 100 years, and I don't think we should cut that umbilical cord now; I don't think we should diminish a vital community connection that the community has to the hospital," McIsaac told CTV News.

The mayor says he does not think that the paid membership model should be eliminated, saying that the power of the membership serves many vital purposes, including acting as a layer of accountability for the board as a whole.

"I'm hearing this from people. I've also been reaching out to people who are members and asking them what their thoughts are and what they are aware of; a lot of them aren't aware of it," McIsaac said. "There's a lot of information that they have that is not correct, so when you go through and talk to them about it, they don't want to give it up."

McIsaac said a majority of city council stands against the idea. The discussions come as the hospital continues working on plans to replace its facility with a new, larger hospital. The mayor says those plans will be complicated by a disagreement of this nature with the city's council.

"If we look at this as a debate, it's a debate over governance," McIsaac said. "I think it distracts us from a key role, which we're looking at, in terms of the community needs a modernized, acute care hospital; that's our goal, and that's my primary objective is to work on that and not worry about the governance stuff."

The current model dates back to Oct. 20, 1909, when the hospital's structure was first officially adopted. That predates the implementation of universal healthcare in Canada, with the hospital using this to argue it is time to modernize.

"In some ways, we need to look at the governance at all times. We need best practices for Orillia," said McIsaac. "I see the membership as an asset, not a liability. We should have thousands of members, not hundreds, and doing so will push us further along the path to getting a modern acute care hospital that we so desperately need."

In response to concerns that eliminating the paid membership model would disenfranchise residents, Alston points to many other ways the hospital seeks consultation from the community, including the Patient Family Advisory Committee.

"There are opportunities for the community to be engaged, and certainly, the physician leadership wants the community to be engaged in driving the decision-making of the hospital moving forward; we just don't believe you need a paid membership model to do that," said Alston.

A proposal has yet to be officially drawn up. If that happens, it would be taken to the board for a vote.