Deficits, recruitment and infrastructure are top challenges
Isabel Mosseler
Tribune
West Nipissing General Hospital (WNGH) has a new CEO in the person of Dawn Morissette, a woman with a varied career in both the private and public sectors, who brings a wealth of experience to a high profile position within the community, a position with many challenges. She takes on a public institution of vital necessity to West Nipissing, a major local employer, but one that has faced three annual deficits in succession. Morissette took over on February 3, 2025, and while she already has a month in, she says she’s still getting her bearings. She has established a residence in Sturgeon Falls and has rolled up her sleeves with a stated commitment to the well-being of the hospital, it’s staff and the public.
Morissette explains that her diverse and interesting professional background, from early days of working at Syncrude, Alberta to managing a seniors’ facility in Elliot Lake, was a result of small town life, and she likes small town life. “That’s what happens when you’re young and you live in small places. You have to try and do things to keep you interested and growing all the time,” she says. She is still applying that approach with her latest move. “I specifically looked for a small community. I have all intentions of being here as long as I possibly can,” she states.
Morissette’s background includes health care, her own professional consultancy, a background in business planning, management, relationship building, teaching as a professor, and volunteerism, including serving on the board of governors of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). And now, “I’m really, really focused on the hospital here (…) Totally focused (…) I am right here where I need to be.”
After three years of deficits, Dawn Morissette has challenges at WNGH, but she stresses that deficits are not uncommon at smaller hospitals. “I would say that our challenges aren’t much different than those of all small northern rural hospitals or smaller hospitals [that] find themselves in a really tough place because it costs us more money to deliver similar services because we don’t have the economies of scale. So a deficit is definitely going to be in our near future; it will continue to be a concern until we can come to terms with the government across the province. We’re not unique in that sense.”
The challenge is to make sure that the community of West Nipissing continues to get quality care at home, in a bilingual facility that is a major asset to the area. “We’re not alone in that sense, and that’s really a good thing, because that means we can all pull together and work together to make sure that the government is funding us appropriately for the care that our community needs. (…) Another challenge is to make sure that we’re maximizing everything that we can and keeping everything we can.”
Based on her experience in delivering services to seniors, she is asked if there are any foreseeable changes in services, especially in long-term care (LTC). “It’s going to be important, right? The last of the baby boomers this year turned 60, which means that the eldest of the baby boomers turned 80. We’re not out of the woods yet (…) As the population continues to age, we need to provide those services. (…) We have lost some beds here temporarily due to the changes in the long-term care regulations that happened during the pandemic. (…) There was really a lot of learning that came out of that, one of which is that wardrooms with four people in long term care is not advisable. And so across the province, anywhere there were wardrooms, the ministry said ‘You can’t do that anymore.’ So now we have to figure out how to provide the same amount of service, same number of beds to our community within the infrastructure that we have. I don’t know how, yet, we’re going to be able to solve that one.”
Across the province, it’s now legislated that you can have only two persons per room in LTC care, but the hospital’s ‘Pavillon’ section only has so many rooms and would require renovations to accommodate more residents – a costly proposition. “I don’t have any line of sight right now on whether or not we would be successful in getting some redevelopment funding, but I will certainly chase every single funding opportunity that I can find to make sure that we maximize services, in particular in long-term care.”
Another continual issue that plagues WNGH is the recruitment of health care professionals to the area. Morissette’s background with NOSM may have potential benefits in understanding what attracts professionals. She indicates that WNGH being a centre for learning for students pursuing a career in health care will continue. “Being on the Board of Governors (NOSM), I will always bring the perspective of small-town Northern Ontario and make sure that they are very clear on the needs of our small communities. In terms of attracting more learners, learners come in two types: those who are doing their medical school (…) undergraduate learners (…) and (…) our residents finishing their degree. They are now called Doctor, but they need the hands-on piece of their training in order to be able to write their final exams.”
That where WNGH comes in. “I absolutely believe that our facility here (…) should continue to be a centre for learning (…) for physicians that are interested in doing the type of practice that’s available here (…), a little bit of family, maybe a little bit of inpatient, certainly some emergency room, because we do have a hard time keeping that staffed. That’s a huge priority, and the more students we can get through our doors and learning in our communities [the better].”
It’s a community effort as well, she recognizes. “We have wonderful partners in the community! I’ve had the chance to meet with folks at the Family Health Team and the Community Health Centre. Those are lovely, well-run organizations at this time so, working together, the more students we can get learning and the more residents we can get practicing, the better ability we have to retain them long-term. We have a number of people from our area that are in various stages of learning and so we’ve got to work together along with the municipality.” She stresses that the they need to look at all health professionals, “not just physicians, but PSW’s and RPNs and our technologists in the laboratory and in diagnostic imaging, X-ray.”
She notes that the community itself is very attractive to potential professionals moving, that West Nipissing is a crossroads with lots of potential. “We need everybody. And we’re going to have a hard time filling those roles, just like every other hospital. So you know, we’re all in this boat, we’re all competing against each other. We’re really going to have to do some work together to make it known how attractive it is to be here. I mean, look at everything you have here. A wonderful community. There is a bakery. Who has a bakery now? There’s a deli. There’s a butcher. There’s everything you need. The stores. The Canadian Tire. The fabulous grocery stores, all kinds of gas options, a community centre, you have a pool, (…) that’s not something every small community has, and we’re super well situated, (…) a jump away if you want the urban feel. But you don’t have to live in it and that’s special, that’s really special. I think that it’s what makes it attractive here. I think that’s what’s going to be part of our key to keeping people in the community, which means if our hospital is staffed, we don’t have to rely on agency, we are able to manage our costs. It’s all related.”
Indeed, the hospital has had to rely on agency doctors to staff the emergency room over the past few years, bringing them in to cover shifts at a very high cost. While this puts enormous pressure on the budget, it’s a choice between paying the hefty price tag or closing the emergency room due to unstaffed shifts. Past CEOs had committed to keeping the ER open despite being in a deficit position, and Morissette is so far maintaining that practice.
One of the interesting features in Dawn Morissette’s professional biography is her work in anti-racism initiatives, what today is referred to on a broader scale as diversity, equity and inclusion. Hospitals are very diverse places employing people from many backgrounds, and Morissette may have that particular touch that works to bring people together in a harmonious manner. “I have had the opportunity to work on that portfolio in a couple places and to me that’s just part and parcel of how we work together collaboratively in this environment, and that means everyone has to feel welcome. We have to make sure that folks are feeling welcome and not only feeling welcome but feel culturally and psychologically safe.”
That goes for staff and patients alike. “If you don’t feel safe when you’re asking for care, you may not tell your whole story and that can impact your ability to receive the best care possible in the moment. So how do we make sure that everybody that comes through our doors feels like they’re going to have an opportunity to tell their story and not be judged? (…) That can apply to folks who are struggling with addictions, it can apply to folks who come from different backgrounds, or it can come from working with our Indigenous partners. So there’s lots of work to be done, but we all have lots of work to do on that front, right? It’s just about building a culture where everybody feels safe to tell their story.”
Morissette has the impression this community has the wherewithal to provide the right environment. “I love it! Love it. The people here are phenomenal. They’re kind and compassionate and good at what they do. I’m meeting more and more people every day. It’s been a heavy workload, but it’s been either people I meet in the stores or people met walking around on the street or people here at work. It’s been really, really welcoming. It’s been a breath of fresh air. It’s great.”
When asked about the volunteer sector at the hospital in comparison with other facilities that have a strong volunteer component, she notes that COVID did have an impact. “A lot of these volunteer programs were decreased in order to be able to deal with the pandemic and to protect volunteers and patients and staff in the hospital (…), so it’s been really slow for a lot of hospitals to reopen those volunteer programs and to reimagine them to fit into what’s going on in the hospitals today. (…) I have not yet had a chance to look at that portfolio here. I do believe volunteers do play a very important role, but we’ve got to figure out what keeps everybody protected but still lets folks be engaged in the community. In the meantime, if folks are looking to volunteer, the (WNGH) Foundation is a really good place to start. We’ve got events that we have to run and money that we have to raise.”
