KENORA – The local hospital's chief executive is retiring, and the hospital has lined up a new CEO from within its own ranks.
Ray Racette will retire in June after nearly six years as president and CEO at Lake of the Woods District Hospital and more than 40 years in health care.
The hospital’s board of directors has appointed Cheryl O’Flaherty, currently a vice-president and chief financial officer, as the new president and CEO effective June 21. She will become the hospital’s first female CEO.
A chartered accountant and graduate of the Rotman School of Management’s Advanced Health Leadership program, O’Flaherty has been with the Kenora hospital for 20 years.
A key priority as CEO and president will be “to move forward the All Nations Hospital project … and bring it to fruition,” O’Flaherty told Dougall Media.
The planned hospital will replace the old one with more physical space, 100 per cent single-patient rooms, extra space in palliative care and extra beds for psychiatric care among its features.
Where the new hospital will be built is undetermined, but O’Flaherty said there is “a preferred site” where a sawmill once operated.
A statement from the hospital board said Racette has shown “exceptional leadership” that included a key role in planning for the old hospital’s replacement.
“I’ll miss all of this,” Racette said in an interview this week. “I’ve been working as a health leader since ’79, so it’s been a long time.”
Racette came to Kenora from Ottawa, where he was president of the Canadian College of Health Leaders, in September 2018. His background also includes executive positions at hospitals in Manitoba.
“I’ve really had a chance to work in great places with great people, and I’m really pleased with coming here,” he said this week.
“And it’ll be a hard place to leave, because we’ve been through a lot together and we’ve planned a lot for the future as well for this region.
“But I feel good leaving and I’ve handed off to Cheryl, who has been here for 20 years at the hospital,” he said.
“I know that the board and I certainly feel good with Cheryl assuming the CEO role. With all her experience and all her skill, she’ll do a great job.”
Racette described his time at the helm in Kenora as “a dynamic period” featuring a pandemic, unprecedented staffing shortages, new hospital planning, All Nations Health Partners and modernization of parts of the old hospital to the extent that it earned “the highest level of accreditation a hospital could be awarded.”
Accreditation Canada, a national body that assesses organizations in health and social services, awarded the hospital “accreditation with exemplary standing” last year.
Kenora District Services Board chief administrative officer Henry Wall described Racette as a friend and mentor who could always be called for advice.
“When Ray took on the role of CEO at Lake of the Woods, his leadership was really a breath of fresh air,” Wall said Thursday.
“He recognized that the hospital couldn’t work in isolation from the community, and he reached out to build relationships.”
Wall worked with Racette in the Kenora Area Working Group, which is now the All Nations Health Partners. It’s a coalition of Indigenous, municipal and health care leaders developing patient-centred health care in the Kenora region.
Upon retirement, Racette and his wife will be moving to a community near Ottawa.
