Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare is celebrating its 130th anniversary on Wednesday.
To mark the occasion, the hospital is launching a heritage-history initiative — preserved hospital artifacts and displays will be showcased at the Prince Rd. location over the next year.
"One of the things that we know is important to the history of this community is that Hotel-Dieu was here before Windsor was Windsor," says CEO Janice Kaffer. "So what we want to do is acknowledge the long history of the sisters, of Dean Wagner, of the community and the different ways that Hotel-Dieu has contributed over the years."
Kaffer says there has been plenty of changes over the years but the hospital's story and commitment remains constant.
"We are an organization that is in really good shape," says Kaffer. "We're well managed, financially stable and strong, the quality outcomes are good and our patient and family satisfaction is through the roof more or less and our staff are feeling good and that's a good place to go as we're going into accreditation next year in June."
.@HDGHWindsor is celebrating its 130th anniversary. The hospital is also launching a new initiative showcasing its heritage and history. #cklw pic.twitter.com/0gZ3xNO9iH
— Rob Hindi (@rhindi800) October 17, 2018
She says the hospital culture is important to her and her team.
"You can have a great strategy and you can have all kinds of wonderful plans and you can have all kinds of wonderful things you want to do but if your team doesn't get it, if your family inside doesn't get it, if they're not buying in, if they don't believe that the values your put on the wall are the values you really care about and you're going to live yourself, you won't get that feeling in that organization."
The hospital was established in 1888 under the leadership of Rev. Dean Wagner and five nuns and was Windsor's first hospital, first known as Hotel-Dieu of St. Joseph's.
For the past five years, the hospital has been located on Prince Rd. in Windsor.