At the June 26, 2013 meeting of the Sunrise Regional Health Authority the Board noted that funding has been received for the Canora Gateway Lodge dining room repairs and the tender for the project was advertised.
Workers have been on site at Invermay Health Centre since April 29, 2013. Repairs are progressing well and are on target for completion by September 15, 2013.
After the repair work is finished the facility will be thoroughly cleaned and equipment and supplies restored in preparation for the return of staff, residents and visitors, in early October.
The Board heard a presentation on physician recruitment and retention. Currently practicing in Sunrise Health Region are 38 family physicians and 18 physicians in other specialties.
The health region is recruiting to fill four vacancies in family medicine, two vacancies in internal medicine and one vacancy each for radiology and anesthesiology.
For the next 12 weeks Sunrise Health Region will host three family physicians for the clinical field assessment portion of the Saskatchewan International Physicians Practice Assessment (SIPPA). Dr. Olukayode Ilutunfese will be practicing with mentor Dr. Louw (Esterhazy), Dr. Parveen Gupta with mentor Dr. Roodt (Yorkton) and Dr. Eloise Laing with mentor Dr. Van Zyl (Melville).
Internationally trained physicians must complete the SIPPA program in order to establish a medical practice in Saskatchewan.
The clinic field assessment is under the guidance of a physician mentor and, to prevent bias, is completed outside of the region where the physician will practice.
There are three intakes to the SIPPA program each year. Sunrise Health Region is guaranteed two spots per intake. The fall session of the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment (SIPPA) begins August 28, 2013. Three physicians in the fall program are destined for practices in Sunrise Health Region, pending successful completion of SIPPA.
The health region has successfully recruited a fourth full-time diagnostic sonographer. The position will begin September 3, 2013 with new ultrasound machine funded by The Health Foundation.
The equipment is on order and will be temporarily located until renovations are completed at Yorkton Regional Health Centre to accommodate this additional service.
The Board approved Crestvue Ambulance to move to a Paramedic service resulting in the following client fee increases. The basic fee increases from $245 to $325. The travel rate remains $2.30 per kilometer and the wait charge is also unchanged. The basic fee increase will come into effect on August 6, 2013.
The Sunrise Health Region facilities and grounds are tobacco free zones effective July 1, 2013. In-patients will be offered, free of charge, nicotine replacement therapy during their hospital stay. Patients who wish to continue use of tobacco products during their hospital stay will be required to sign a waiver and go off property to smoke or to chew tobacco.
Visitors, workers and members of the public are asked to respect the health region's decision to promote health and tobacco free zones on health property.
The annual Capital Management Plan was approved. The plan includes $720,000 in provincial Block Funding which is provided for Life, Safety/Emergency and Infrastructure projects and includes items such as patient lifts, water filtration systems, air conditioning, linoleum replacement, etc. The plan also identifies $235,000 from the health region budget provincial funding for Capital Equipment.
Capital equipment is any equipment that has a cost of $3,000 per item and over, and that has a longer lifespan than one year.
The Capital Management Plan also contains a list of items to be purchased if donation dollars become available. Presented at each Board meeting is the list of items purchased from the Capital Management Plan. At the June meeting the Board approved purchases from the Capital Plan totaling $238,364.
The Board reviewed policy monitoring reports related to; locally generated funds, financial planning, investments, resident trust accounts, requests for information, records management, and information systems. The Client Safety and Critical Incident Report was presented for the period October 1, 2012 - March 31, 2013.
.JPG;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
