CARE During COVID-19 - Spotlight - Ann Marie

Ann Marie, Organizational Development Consultant

Joseph Brant Hospital’s Mission is to provide quality patient care. One way we do this is through our organizational values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence (CARE).

Throughout the summer, we will be featuring stories about our staff who have lived our organization’s values and have worked behind the scenes contributing to patient, visitor and community care, and hospital operations throughout the pandemic.

“Our genuine willingness to collaborate and partner, both internally and beyond our hospital, is distinct. The sense of family we feel towards each other, our patients and our community is unmatched.”

Ann Marie has been a Human Resources leader in health care for over 20 years, and is gearing up to celebrate her one year anniversary working at Joseph Brant Hospital. Like others, Ann Marie’s role shifted during the pandemic. We asked her about her role and what changed over the last year.

 “As the impact of Wave 2 began to take hold, it was an opportunity to have a direct and meaningful impact on our organization’s pandemic response. Given my prior experience, I volunteered to provide additional leadership and guidance to the Human Resources Team along with the clinical leaders who were preparing for unprecedented surges in patient volumes and staffing challenges.”

Ann Marie’s new role was initially expected to only last for six to eight weeks and help the hospital through the second wave, but six months later, and well into the third wave, she continued to find herself overseeing the expedited hiring of Nurses, Personal Support Workers, Health Care Aides, Respiratory Therapist, Immunizers, etc.

“Wave 2 challenged our hospital and the health system overall in ways we could not have imagined. The gravity of the situation became abundantly clear when the organization identified the need to temporarily redeploy non-patient facing staff to patient-care floors for additional support.”

To minimize the impact in non-patient facing departments, the Human Resources Team partnered with Corporate Communications, Volunteer Services, and a Professional Practice Educator to rapidly source, hire, orientate and train Pandemic Assistants from the community. In less than two weeks, more than 20 Pandemic Assistants replaced non-patient facing staff and a new role was successfully launched at JBH!

We asked Ann Marie what she is most proud of from the last year and a half.

“I am incredibly proud to have had the opportunity to serve JBH, our patients and community alongside all of those who were critical to our success.”

Thank you Ann Marie for your commitment and dedication to our hospital, patients and community.

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JBH Annual Report 21-22: Extraordinary Moments, Exceptional Care

The 2021-2022 Annual Report showcases the extraordinary to the seemingly ordinary moments from the past year that collectively represent the compassion, accountability, respect, excellence and service our teams share with our patients every day, even when faced with the adversities of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stories reflect a moment in time – please view the Annual Report webpage for a more fulsome report on statistics.