On the morning of Wednesday, September 23, more than 70 members gathered to hear about the state of health care across the Bay of Quinte region from Stacey Daub, President & CEO of Quinte Health.
Thanks to Kasama Marketing for supporting this month’s breakfast keynote and in keeping with the theme of health care, attendees took home their own little mini first aid kit. Katrina and Andrew have developed the Kasama method as a remedy to the issues that often plague small business around marketing and development.
In her welcome, Katrina shared how her first days in Belleville as a brand-new mother landed her at BGH and the excellent support she received gave her great comfort this was the care available in her new city. It was a personal reminder that local health care touches every one of us, and a fitting segue to the introduction of keynote speaker, Stacey Daub.
In her role as President and CEO of Quinte Health, Stacey leads a family of four community hospitals, a Children’s Treatment Centre and community mental health programs. Her career spans more than three decades across hospital, home, community and primary care, in both urban and rural Ontario. Before joining Quinte Health, she was Vice President of Strategy, Integration and Digital Health at North York General Hospital. She was previously President and CEO of Headwaters Health Care Centre, where she helped co-design the Hills of Headwaters collaborative, an early Ontario Health Team. Originally from Kitchener-Waterloo, Stacey now lives in the Quinte Region with her family. She is also Honorary Colonel of the 24 Canadian Forces Health Services Centre at CFB Trenton.
Her address, Building the Future of Care. Together., invited the room to look ahead. She explained how our communities are changing and how care will have to evolve to meet those needs and pointed to a rapidly growing and aging population with the steady rise in demand for care that comes with it. Her approach is focused on better care, delivered differently and appealed to the audience that a hospital has to operate as a business in order to serve its community, “if your customers, workforce and infrastructure were all changing at once, would you keep doing things exactly as you always have?”
. She framed that around three shifts:
She also made the case that small and rural communities can lead. The planned hospital in Prince Edward County is a good example. She described it as a “pillar” for not just the area, but as an exemplar for health care facilities of the future.
Stacey reminded the room that health is shaped long before someone reaches the hospital doors. She closed with a challenge to everyone present to champion positive change, build healthy communities and invest in what’s possible. She noted that philanthropy, including the work of the Belleville General Hospital Foundation, helps bring new equipment, technology and spaces to our community.
Thank you to our dignitaries and guests for attending, including Mayor Neil Ellis, Councillor Garnet Thompson, and Chamber President Sandi Ramsay.
A big thank you to the team at Sans-Souci for the breakfast and Starboard Communications for sponsoring the coffee mingle. Thank you also to Kasama Marketing for their generous support in sponsoring September’s Chamber breakfast. Thank you to everyone who came out. And finally, thank you to Stacey Daub for giving us her time and her vision for health care in our region.
