As with every year, March 8th is International Women’s Day. The theme this year is Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress and couldn’t be more appropriate to what we are endeavouring to accomplish at Carefor right now.
This week has been Go Live Week for our new Client Management System, AlayaCare, for our home, clinical and Inner City Health teams. This new system will be an overhaul of our data management, billing, reporting and more giving our staff a new tool to use for their care each and every day.
The reason this year’s theme is so appropriate right now is that AlayaCare truly is an investment. Our home, clinical and Inner City Health teams are using AlayaCare now, with our community support services and retirement teams across Carefor to follow shortly. This will result in improved care for the over 20,000 clients and their loved ones that Carefor supports each year. As with all investments it comes with risk and effort, but we are confident from what we have seen that all the effort that our team is putting in will be worth it.
While AlayaCare will offer better, more consistent care to our clients and their loved ones, it will also mean a better working experience for our over 1,300 staff across Eastern Ontario, 80% of whom are women.
Carefor was established 127 years ago as the founding chapter of the Victorian Order of Nurses by Lady Aberdeen, the wife of the then Governor General. Over that time the vast majority of our staff have been women, many of whom in our early days were pioneers, leaving the conventional confines of their homes to pursue a life and career of service to others.
Today, Carefor employs people from all walks of life and for many, Carefor is their first job in Canada. Our mission is not only to welcome them, but also to empower them to become the best they can be whether here at Carefor or wherever their career might take them. One of the ways we are working to do this is by giving them the best tools. AlayaCare is one of these tools.
Ontario’s healthcare system is changing rapidly, and we are confident that we are well-positioned to accelerate progress through actions large and small so that our clients, caregivers, staff and partners, can be part of the best care possible.
We are grateful to the over 1,000 women who have chosen to join Carefor and that work every day to accelerate progress to make our communities better and healthier.
Amy Boudreau
Vice-President, Strategy, Performance and Partnerships
Marcelle Thibeault
Vice-President, Client Care