Laura Shoots

Background

About Laura Shoots

Dealing with the loss of a loved one is so hard. As an ER physician, I get it. It's why I've created 'Take Care', an online platform to help guide you through all of the things you need to share with your family before you die, to help ease their grieving and make an incredibly stressful process, a little less stressful. Check out my website for full details. As an emergency physician and Quality Improvement Leader in the BCHS ED, I have led a number of initiatives aimed at improving patient outcomes and departmental efficiency. Among my key contributions is the creation of our Code STEMI process, which significantly reduced door-in door-out times for STEMI patients, and the complete overhaul of our Code Stroke process. By developing a program to train physician assistants to liaise with telestroke, we streamlined a process that previously required an hour of an ER physician’s time. I also completely redesigned BCHS's approach to the provincial ED return visit quality program. I’ve trained emergency physicians on conducting thorough chart reviews, educated them on the importance of not blaming and shaming but rather identifying system errors that lead to return visits, and advocating for quality improvements for the benefit of patient safety. I have helped multiple departments across the province to implement similar approaches and I sit on the provincial ED Return Visit Quality Steering Committee. At the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic, I served as President of the Medical Staff Association, where I was tasked with leading my physician colleagues through this crisis. I led countless meetings with anxious physicians and senior leaders, advocating for the safety and well-being of our hospital staff, a difficult role but one I was proud to have held. During this same time, I was part of the ER COVID-committee at BCHS, where I helped guide the hospital and community through rapid changes in care. Some of my responsibilities included developing algorithms for swabbing, collaborating with over 100 family physicians and representing the hospital on primary care committees. I have a strong passion for leadership and medical education, having previously held positions such as Co-Chief Resident in the CCFP-EM program at the University of Ottawa and Program Chief Resident for Queen’s Family Medicine. I teach at McMaster, and am an Inquiry lead for McMaster’s Grand Erie Six Nations Family Medicine Residents, guiding them on their quality improvement curriculum and projects.