At the January 27, 2016 meeting of the Sunrise Regional Health Authority, Chairperson Lawrence Chomos reported on activities for the previous month which included a January 15, 2016 meeting with Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Senator Ted Quewezance and Chris Lafontaine, Executive Director with the Saskatchewan Community Justice Division to discuss first nation’s community health services.
CEO Report
President and CEO, Suann Laurent presented the annual “year at a glance” highlights report for 2015 and reported on the successful accreditation of all facilities and programs in the health region. Sunrise Health Region achieved or exceeded national standards on over ninety-five percent of the nineteen hundred key service elements reviewed by the survey team. A required organizational practice in the surgery department was not fully deployed at the time of the November 2015 accreditation survey and a report will be sent to Accreditation Canada as follow-up once fully deployed in April of 2016.
The CT scanner at Yorkton Regional Health Centre will be replaced in February and March, 2016. Replacement of this vital equipment necessitates extensive electrical and cooling system upgrades and an unavoidable interruption on CT scan services will occur during this work. When the service is on bypass, persons requiring CT scans will be forwarded to Regina and Saskatoon. Contingency plans are in place to quickly connect patients with the services they may need and information to the public about the duration of the service interruption will soon be forthcoming.
The President and CEO, Vice President of Medical Services and Vice President of Corporate Services were invited to join the President of the University of Saskatchewan, College of Nursing to visit the robotics laboratory of InTouch Health in California. InTouch Health offers technology-enabled services to healthcare providers that are interested in using telehealth to expand access to care. The University of Saskatchewan robot, used in Sunrise Health Region, is a product of InTouch Health. The group that travelled to California received information about how to maximize the potential of Seymour to expand the scope of services offered to people in the region.
Other recent activities discussed by the board included the December 10, 2015 meeting of the Ethics Committee, the December 3 meeting of the board committee on safety and quality, and a request for the Health Foundation to assist with replacement of aging telemetry heart monitoring equipment. The board also received reports on continuous improvement workshops and events in emergency department diagnostics, the elimination of defects in lifts inspection, and further improvements in mental health and addiction services.
Decisions
At the January meeting, the Board approved the purchase of capital equipment and projects totalling $385,465. A request to use a portion of the Dr. Tolczynski education grant funds to purchase technology for the delivery of health education was approved. To comply with the Sunrise Regional Health Authority signing authority purchasing policy the board approved seven region expenditures above the $100,000 approval threshold. The Board meeting schedule was approved for 2016 and the dates are available on the website under the “strategy and innovation/board and policy” section.
The 2015-16 allocation of the Health Promotion Grant Program funding was received as information presented by diabetes nutritionist, Tracy Bielinski. Grant applications were awarded to health promotion grant proposals focusing on creating healthy communities and that were related to improving active living, falls or injury prevention, healthy child development, recreation activities, cultural activities and projects, and tobacco reduction projects. The projects must have community involvement in the process of identifying the project, must not duplicate a current project and must have the potential to be sustainable and expanded in the future. The region encourages projects that have co-sponsorship and co-operation between various sectors of the community. Research projects, non-eligible equipment, and professional development are not eligible. Projects receiving funding are required to submit evaluations on their projects, including the number of persons reached by the initiative. The health region put out a call for grant proposals in November in newspaper advertisements, on the region website, Twitter and Facebook pages. The applications were reviewed by a committee of health professionals in December; a total of 23 requests were received and $29,753 in funding will be dispersed to assist 20 community groups for health enhancing events in 13 communities in the region.
Governance process policies reviewed this month were for board and committee expenses, code of conduct, board team charter, conflict of interest, board planning cycle and agenda control, policy monitoring schedule, board member non-performance, board handling of concerns and complaints. The board received policy monitoring reports on executive limitation related to treatment of staff, occupational health and safety, prevention of abuse towards healthcare workers, smoking, and compensation and benefits. The board also received the semi-annual report about client safety and provincial issue alerts.
The Financial Condition Report, up to and including November 30, 2015 shows the Sunrise Health Region in a surplus position with the operating revenues exceeding the operating expenditures by $919,030.
The Accreditation Canada awarding of 2015-19 accreditation status was received by the board and the executive summary and full accreditation report can be found on the health region website in the “news and publications” area of www.sunrisehealthregion.sk.ca under “Reports and Studies”.
The next meeting of the Board is March 30, 2016.
