The board of directors for the Sun Country Regional Health Authority conducted their monthly general business meeting in the auditorium at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Estevan on March 25. This was a change from the usual format that sees the board meeting at their headquarters in Tatagwa View in Weyburn.
A variety of reports were submitted for scrutiny by the board members, with only a few questions raised.
During her report to the board, Marga Cugnet, CEO for the region noted that for the first time since the amalgamation of the health districts into the Sun Country Health Region, over 11 years ago, there is now a full complement of physicians working within the region. All smaller rural facilities are now fully served by physicians and/or nurse practitioners and Estevan and Weyburn have as many physicians as deemed necessary. She said there are 35 physicians working in the region now.
Later during an interview, she cited a combination of public and provincial initiatives have been implemented that have led to this current positive situation.
“There were local committees struck, such as the one in Estevan when this city was really bordering on a desperate lack of doctors for some time. Then there was the Sun Country committee, and a new provincial initiative that allowed foreign-trained doctors to become eligible for practicing in Saskatchewan, that all helped,” she said. “Five years ago we were at about 50 per cent of where we needed to be, but the recruitment projects and the College of Medicine made the changes,” Cugnet added. She later speculated that even prior to the formation of Sun Country Health Region, there was probably an ongoing shortage of physicians in southeast Saskatchewan, probably dating back to the 1980s.
Janice Giroux, vice-president of community health, reported on patients receiving access to a health care team within acceptable time limits, noting there are still instances when the public does not know where to get some specific services or were not aware of the options they could pursue other than a visit to the emergency room. She did notice though, that improvements have been made and results have been successfully tracked through a pilot project using the Weyburn General Hospital.
Stop-the-Harm and Stop-the-Line updates were presented by John Knoch, the health region’s vice-president of corporate operations and finance. He, along with Chris Cecchini, vice-president of human resources, spoke on such issues as injury reduction, good catches of impending errors in treatment or diagnosis and recognizing problems as they surface and tending to them efficiently.
Cecchini noted how the injury reduction team have not been able to achieve their target in the past fiscal year, ending on March 31, but still, progress had been made and a realistic target would be set for the next 12-month period with realigned resources and monthly safety meetings where gaps in using technology will be addressed.
Board chairwoman Marilyn Charlton questioned if there were some areas that were more problematic than others, to which Cecchini said, there were and they were identified while doing an internal tracking of incidents.
Knoch also reported on developing leadership qualities and removing barriers for those emerging leaders within the Sun Country family. He noted that 40 people have received additional training with the next session slated for April 21.
Knoch also supplied a statement of operations for the board members, indicating a small surplus that amounted to the equivalent of about “two days of operation, but still within the target.”
Knoch also provided an update on the recently completed and opened regional centres in Radville and Kipling. The $23 million Radville centre offers 25 long-term care spaces and five acute care beds and is currently served by three attending physicians.
The $25 million Kipling integrated health services centre has 33 long-term care beds and 12 acute care beds with three physicians and one nurse practitioner available in that immediate area.
In her report, Cugnet provided updated information on upcoming ophthamologist services that will be offered in Weyburn (cataract surgeries). She also said the Redvers Health Centre would be opening an acute care wing with multipurpose beds in early April. She said they still required another 2.25 full time equivalent registered nurses to allow them to open to a full acute-care service.
It was also noted that one medical bursary was awarded by Sun Country in February. And to the end of the 2014 fiscal year, there have been 56 bursaries awarded to students studying in the health care programs in recognized institutions, with four given for physicians and 43 for registered nurses or registered psychiatric nurses.
Nine medical residents completed rotations in Sun Country in 2014. Eighteen medical students completed the Junior Undergraduate Rotating Student Internships in Estevan and Weyburn hospitals.
There was also a brief report on reducing wait times for those requiring mental health and addictions services.
