Kiki Ferrari is passionate about patient care. Since starting her career as a hospital respiratory therapist more than 30 years ago, she can't imagine working anywhere else.
“There is no better place to be than in health care for making a difference, despite all the challenges we face," said Kiki, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer, William Osler Health System (Osler). “The hospital is where I discovered my true purpose: to ensure patients have the very best care. Over time, that purpose evolved to what drives me today, to make the health system better for those that need it."
Since arriving at Osler in 2009, Kiki has taken on progressively senior leadership roles and currently guides the strategic and operational delivery of clinical programs and services across Osler's five sites.
Six years ago, she experienced challenges within the health system firsthand, as a caregiver while supporting her sister during her battle with cancer. Before her sister passed away on International Women's Day, she promised her that she would work even harder to make things better for patients.
“I feel privileged to do what I do, and extremely humbled to be in a role where I feel I can make a difference to patient care in this community, and beyond."
Kiki's warm demeanor and can-do attitude are only a small part of what makes her an influential and passionate leader. Highly respected for her compassionate and person-centred approach to leadership, she has inspired high performing teams to transform how Osler delivers care, and how patients and families experience care.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kiki supported her teams to seamlessly pivot Osler's operations, creating capacity for the organization to care for the most COVID-19 patients in Ontario. In the midst of the pandemic, her teams also championed new and expanded programs like COVID@Home to improve access to care, as well as implemented The Butterfly ApproachTM, as the first hospital in the world to use this new emotion-based, person-centred model of care for patients living with dementia.
Building on the pandemic experience, Kiki firmly believes a collective approach involving continuous collaboration between government, hospitals, long-term care, primary care, public health and communities will lead to solutions and innovations that address the health care challenges faced by the system today.
“Those relationships where we understand what each organization does, how we can help each other, and especially how we can help patients, have set us up for success. While the system is very fragile right now, we know that one simple change can snowball into something great for health care."
Kiki also believes that she and others can help make the health system better by mentoring others to create the leaders of the future, especially women.
“Being compassionate and sympathetic are skills that I believe are crucial in leadership, particularly in health care. That's the humanity of leadership. Yes, we have outcomes we want to achieve, and we want to do things efficiently, but if you think of the human first, whether it's a patient or a frontline team member, that always puts you in the right place."
Kiki spends as much time as she can mentoring others and helping to shape the leaders of tomorrow, as she feels it's important to pay forward the advice, support and opportunities that made her the person she is today.
“I tell mentees that if you work hard and are passionate about what you do, anything is possible. Avoid taking on opportunities just for the title. Instead, focus on doing work that speaks to your purpose – that's where you'll find the most meaning, and that will take you places."
Kiki should know. Since the start of her career, Kiki has worked to fulfill her purpose by embracing every opportunity to get involved in quality and system improvements that support positive changes in patient care.
“There's still so much more to be done to make our system better for all patients, and I will continue to do everything possible to fulfill the promise I made to my sister."