In 2021, in the midst of the global pandemic, IWK Health launched its new 3-year strategy The Road Forward, articulating existing priorities while at the same time ensuring long-term aspirational goals were identified. Our intention was not just to talk about what we wanted to achieve for positive impact but determine what we saw emerging as future opportunities. The new way of thinking about strategy included thoughtful discussions about our purpose, values, and future directions as the first step in the process. To balance agility and responsiveness with long-term vision, a more iterative approach using the principles of continuous improvement was adopted for ongoing informal engagement with staff, physicians and researchers and coupled with an annual review cycle to identify or re-confirm priorities and objectives.

And achieve we did! Our new Emergency Department began emerging from the ground, funded by government and donors through the IWK Foundation and will provide state-of-the-art family-centered care. Our new research and innovation strategy was rolled out with a focus on implementation science — getting new and improved ideas for patient care. Emerging from the pandemic we focused on supporting leadership through courses on psychological safety and leadership development. We renewed and rolled out our staff recognition program to recognize the amazing work done by staff every day. Working with our partners in the wider provincial system we began the transformation of processes and services to address wait-times for surgeries and specialty care. A great beginning on the road to excellence.

In 2022 the Nova Scotia government released Action for Health, a bold new plan for transforming healthcare delivery in the province. Our agile strategy approach allowed the rapid alignment and integration of the priorities within the provincial plan, in many cases reinforcing work already underway at IWK Health and extending the impact for women and children. As we continued integrating our priorities with provincial plans, and saw the substantial achievements we made towards our objectives in spite of the pandemic's difficulties, we decided in fall 2023 to pursue the path we started in 2021. We recommitted to an agile strategy approach, responsive to the here and now but focused on the future. Leveraging strengthened relationships built during the pandemic, we worked with multiple partners to develop national healthcare priorities to right-size the system for patients and families. It was clear that a system-wide, responsive, and priority-based approach to resetting healthcare delivery was needed.

As we launch the IWK Strategy 2024-2027: The Road Forward we look forward to delivering on our priorities as a future-focused, responsive and agile organization and continue our journey on the path toward our purpose “To passionately pursue a healthy future with women, children, youth and families in all their diversity though excellence in care; research and innovation; and applied learning”.