Kim Stephens-Woods says she feels she grew up at Trillium.

“My Mom worked as a nurse when The Mississauga Hospital was still South Peel.  It was nice to work in the same organization that my mother worked in.”

Kim Stephens-Woods joined the hospital in 1987 as an emergency room nurse.  Twenty-one years later she is leaving Trillium, resigning as Director of the Surgical Health System to take up the post of Perioperative Director at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton.

“From amalgamation to construction, there have been changes every day.  Changes in how we care for people, changes in technology, changes through the LHIN.

“We don’t drive some of the changes  -  they’re a result of the political or financial environment -  but you still have to adapt accordingly.”

“Fifteen or 25 years ago, if you had your appendix out or have a baby, you were in the hospital for five days.  If you had your gall bladder out, you’d be in the hospital two weeks.  Now you’re home this afternoon and back to work on Monday.  What we did then and what we do now are totally different.”

We’ve been a leader in many respects, she says, adding that ambulatory care is an important part of Trillium’s future.

Meanwhile, however, pressures on the emergency department are making patient care more difficult.  “Are the pressures the result of people not being able to access a family physician?  Or is it that we’re an instant gratification society?”

Kim Stephens-Wood says she believes that as health care providers, “I don’t think we’ve done a very good job of educating the public on how to interact with the health care system.  We’re the care provider but we haven’t told anybody that the rules of engagement have changed.”