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Back to SearchOttawa, ON, December 5 2023 - CHEO has received four prestigious awards from Children’s Healthcare Canada, the national organization of children’s healthcare providers. Every year, Children’s Healthcare Canada honours individuals, teams and initiatives that make a difference in pediatrics.
2023 Children’s Healthcare Canada Award for Organizational Leadership: Kids Come First Health Team
This national award recognizes Kids Come First as a leader in enabling the best healthcare for Canada’s children and youth. Unprecedented in Canada, the Kids Come First is a collaborative across eastern Ontario. It includes over 60 organizations and thousands of physicians and families, working to improve access to mental health and addictions care, urgent care, surgery, homecare, vaccination and numerous other initiatives for kids and families.
2023 Children’s Healthcare Canada Leadership in Family and Person-Centred Care Award: 1Call1Click.ca (sponsored by Kids Come First Health Team)
Another program unique in Canada, 1Call1Click.ca has been a game changer for kids and families in connecting them to the mental health and addictions support they need. Since its launch by Kids Come First in 2021, over 10,000 children have received support through the program, which also includes daily huddles involving 24 organizations, a shared health record, a real time dashboard, nurses in schools and other clinical supports in schools.
2023 Children’s Healthcare Canada’s Individual Leadership: Alex Munter
Alex Munter's unwavering dedication combined with his visionary and entrepreneurial approach have transformed child and youth health care. As the longest-serving children’s hospital CEO in Canada, his commitment to advocating for improved services to families is testament to his passion for making a positive change in pediatric healthcare. He was instrumental in both provincial and nation-wide advocacy to bring attention to the urgent need to right-size pediatric care, leading to the Ontario government announcement this past summer of the largest expansion of pediatric healthcare in the province’s history.
2023 Children’s HealthCare Canada Leadership in Online Media Award: Bruce Deachman
Bruce Deachman, a columnist and senior writer, at the Ottawa Citizen won the Online Media Award for his in-depth feature for a Dec. 23, 2022 story detailing how CHEO coped with an unmatched patient surge caused by RSV and influenza in a rare behind-the-scenes look at the hospital. Bruce’s feature illustrated the power of storytelling and sharing how CHEO staff and medical staff are dedicated and committed to their patients and kind, safe, care.
Media contact
media@cheo.on.ca
About CHEO
Based in Canada’s capital, CHEO is a globally renowned health institution with a mission to provide exceptional care and support to children, youth and their families. Opening our doors in 1974, we offer a full range of specialized pediatric care and services to children from eastern and northern Ontario, western Quebec and Nunavut. Our site is home to a hospital, a children’s treatment centre, a school, a research institute, and is affiliated with the University of Ottawa as an academic health science centre. Named Canada’s best health-care employer by Forbes in 2024 and 2025, we are home to more than 6,500 staff, clinicians, scientists and researchers, as well as volunteers – all of whom work together to help children and youth achieve their best lives.