Congratulations to the winners of the 2019 President’s Award

The President's Award was introduced in 2011 to recognize staff, teams, students and/or volunteers who demonstrate superior leadership and collaboration resulting in major contributions to the organization.

This year, there were 38 nominations for the President's Award with nominations coming from areas across SickKids, including clinical, administration, research and learning. This year, a President’s Award is going to four individuals and one team.

The award was redesigned in 2015 and integrated the Humanitarian Awards, a program that had been run by SickKids Foundation for over 20 years. The President’s Award is just one of the recognition tools available for staff to recognize colleagues for their hard work and dedication to SickKids.

The recipients were presented with their awards by Dr. Ronald Cohn, SickKids President and CEO, at the staff Celebration of Excellence event on Dec. 5.

Award recipients

Ray Lam, Tuberculosis Program and Travel Clinic

Ray Lam is being recognized under the category of Improving Quality and Safety. The SickKids Tuberculosis Program likely wouldn’t have the national leadership status in paediatric tuberculosis (TB) care it enjoys today.

As a champion of continuous improvement, Lam initiated several enhancements to the TB program to keep the clinic running smoothly with low wait times. He eliminates preventable harm and advances a culture of service excellence through his dedication to his job, which isn’t dictated by the time on the clock, but the time each patient needs.

Dr. Osami Honjo, Cardiovascular Surgery

Cardiovascular Surgeon Dr. Osami Honjo is being recognized in the category of Commitment to Compassion – something he demonstrates to patients, families and fellow staff day after day. His patients have expressed he’s great at explaining complex information and that he will come to check on patients on his own time. His colleagues have said that, no matter how much stress he may be under, he always maintains his composure and treats everyone with kindness and respect.

And despite the countless hours he spends in the Operating Room and with patients, he still finds time to devote to innovative and award-winning heart research.

This past Halloween, you may have seen pictures of Dr. Honjo on our intranet and SickKids’ Instagram with one of his patients who dressed up just like him. That could be the highest praise a patient can pay any staff member at SickKids!

Kelly McNaughton, Peer Support and Trauma Response Program

Peer support is a relatively new program at SickKids but it wouldn’t have achieved such early success without the leadership of Program Manager Kelly McNaughton. She led the development and implementation of SickKids’ Peer Support and Trauma Response Program, and is being recognized for Empowering People and Commitment to Compassion.

McNaughton has been known to wait hours in the Emergency Department and make herself available at odd hours for SickKids staff in need of peer support. Her work to train and coach peers is helping to create a psychologically safe and supportive environment for all staff feeling distress at work. It has also generated overwhelming interest from outside the hospital.  

Dr. Trey Coffey, Caring Safely

Since joining SickKids nearly 15 years ago, Dr. Trey Coffey’s contributions to Improving Quality and Safety are truly unprecedented. Her name is synonymous with eliminating preventable harm at SickKids and all hospitals.

SickKids has more staff, across a wide number of disciplines, addressing quality and safety issues, thanks to Dr. Coffey, co-lead for Caring Safely at SickKids. She was the force behind SickKids becoming the first Canadian hospital to join the Solutions for Patient Safety network.

An inspiring and passionate leader, Dr. Coffey is not just a delegator quick to roll up her sleeves and rally people and teams in eliminating preventable harm. She’s the first to admit that quality improvement and patient safety work is challenging, but never insurmountable, and openly shares her own experiences in coaching colleagues.

The Acute Care Transport Services (ACTS) team

The Acute Care Transport Services team supports safe transfers for babies and children in need of critical, life-saving care. It delivers neonatal and paediatric ICU expertise “on the go” and out to the community. This team is being recognized in the category of Championing the Evolution of Health Systems.

Twenty years ago, this team only treated infants up to five kilograms. Today, the team cares for patients up to age 13. Evolution doesn’t always happen quickly, but it will happen as long as there’s a champion – or team of champions – with the will to take up the cause.

One of the team’s achievements includes this year’s partnership with Toronto Paramedic Services to provide round-the-clock dedicated ambulances and paramedics, which will improve service and reduce response and stabilization times for patients in the community.

Congratulations to all of the President's Award winners for your accomplishments and for the exceptional contributions you make to SickKids!