Runnymede is open seven days a week to serve patients and families

Runnymede physiotherapist Christine Hon (right) helps a patient perform exercises on a stationary bike. The hospital provides therapy and services seven days a week to help patients recover and return to the community as quickly as possible.

Exceptional experience for patients and families is one of the pillars of Runnymede Healthcare Centre’s new strategic plan, launched in April 2020. The hospital is embracing a customer-service mindset to adopt a service-driven approach to enhance the patient experience.

7-day model introduced to meet patients' needs

One of the first steps Runnymede has taken to better serve patients and families is to transition to a seven-day operations model. This means patients not only receive the rehabilitative care they need at a frequency that benefits their recovery, but that they can also take care of any of the administrative requirements of their Runnymede stay when it is convenient for them.

“Guided by our customer service and client experience strategy, we are ensuring that we are not just delivering person-centred care, we are also providing a consistently high-quality experience for our patients that focusses on an individual’s needs, situation and well-being,” Runnymede Healthcare Executive Vice President, Clinical, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Nursing Executive Raj Sewda says.

Patients shown to have shorter lengths of stay

Runnymede introduced a seven-day model of care in February 2019 for its active rehab, slow stream rehab and medically complex programs to maximize the number of therapy minutes patients received per week. Since the introduction of the 7-day model in 2019, there has already been a noted reduction in average length of stay for slow stream rehab patients.

“By reducing the average length of stay for rehab patients, Runnymede is opening up beds in its crucial rehab programs and helping to ease the bottleneck in acute care hospitals,” Raj says. “We are helping more patients get back to their lives, quicker than ever.”

Support services also available seven days a week

Not only does a seven-day model of care speed recovery for patients, but support services are available at the hospital every day of the week to assist patients and staff. Hospital departments including clinical staff, human resources, finance, patient flow, central scheduling, clinical education, pharmacy, information services, activation and retail food are constantly staffed to be available for patients and to ensure hospital operations and projects are constantly progressing.

“The needs of our patients and staff don’t stop just because it’s the weekend,” says Raj. “Our seven-day operations model ensures we are available any day of the week to provide service and care.”