Highlights from 2025 Annual Meeting and Awards Presentation

June 23, 2025 –Sault Area Hospital (SAH) held its Annual Meeting (AM) on June 23, 2025. The AM focused on the many successes over the last year, as well as the challenges faced and expectations for the future.  

We thank outgoing Board members Lisa Bell-Murray (Chair) and Sue Roger (Vice President & Chief Nursing Officer) for their valued service and contributions. SAH welcomes a new director, Emily Cormier. For 2025-2026, Mark Lepore will serve as Board Chair, Armand Capisciolto as First Vice Chair, Tim Lavoie, Second Vice Chair and Ila Watson, Secretary.

 

Quotes From Our Leadership

“From the Board’s perspective, 2024-25 was a year of rebuilding – rebuilding of the Board and rebuilding and engaging with our senior executives including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief of Staff. We saw a need to improve the governance of the Board and transform our thinking for the future, which meant changing the culture and risk appetite of the Board.  We were honoured to have talented new Board members join us, who were able to challenge our current thinking and be part of our Board transformation journey.”

– Lisa Bell-Murray, Board Chair

“Over the last year of my relatively new role as Chief of Staff, I have had opportunities to be involved with meaningful work across many areas, including diversity, equity and inclusion opportunities, strengthening Indigenous partnerships, helping to provide a safe workplace, innovating to improve care delivery, supporting teaching and advancing research to improve health healthcare outcomes, and being responsive to our community needs. In so doing, I have continued to learn that our hospital and the people I work with care deeply about the community we serve. My colleagues here are highly committed, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, caring, and respectful.”

– Dr. John Heintzman, Chief of Staff

 “Health care continues to be a challenging environment, and issues like health human resource shortages and continued capacity pressures mean we need to make room for innovation and continuous improvement. Population health needs and system challenges resulted in significant challenges in fully achieving some of our targets. We continue to work internally and with system partners to address and plan for what will be needed from the health system.”

– Ila Watson, President and CEO

The AM was highlighted by the annual presentation of the SAH iCcare Awards, established by the SAH Board in 2011. These awards acknowledge an employee, volunteer and physician who consistently demonstrate the values of SAH – Integrity, Compassion, Collaboration and

Partnership, Accountability, Respect and Excellence. The 2025 recipients are Angie Gervasi (employee), Dr. Luke Fera (physician), and Yvan Besner (posthumously) (volunteer).

 

The meeting concluded with the much-anticipated presentation of the prestigious Dr. William Hutchinson Award. Presented annually by the SAH Board of Directors, this award recognizes distinguished contributions to health care in Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma. The 2025 recipient is Dr. Vinod Mathur (posthumously).      

SAH congratulates all award recipients for their dedicated service to the residents of Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma region.                                       

Reports and year-end summaries are available on our website at www.sah.on.ca