It was a busy year with enough positive events happening to make it a successful 12-month run of progress in the Sun Country Health Region.
Beginning with the announcement that the region will be home for a computed tomography (CT) scanner this spring, there was a series of happenings that made the past year one where health care took some major leaps forward.
Marga Cugnet, president and chief executive officer for Sun Country, pointed out the CT scanner announcement that came in June blended in nicely with the knowledge that physician recruitment and retention programs had enabled the region to fill most, if not all, the health coverage gaps in the two major cities in the health region, as well as most of the rural health centres. There were bumps along the road in filling all the rural needs, but there is now an emerging sense of stability within that file.
“The planning and renovations to accommodate the CT scanner at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Estevan, is underway and we should be able to get going on installation and use by this spring. The community and the Ministry of Health are currently in negotiations regarding operating cost coverage and the capital costs we know, are being covered by the community,” said Cugnet, who added more imaging technicians are being recruited to operate the scanner since there currently is only one person on staff at St. Joe’s fully trained for CT scan operations.
“There will be another ultra-sound technician added to the one technician who was away for awhile on maternity leave, so that service will be restored soon in Estevan,” Cugnet said.
On the physician recruitment file, the CEO said now the roster is pretty well filled, the communities can focus on the retention part of the plan.
“There is the need to support them to ensure they have what they need. In the meantime, one more doctor is currently taking the Saskatchewan assessment exams and should be setting up a practice in Estevan soon,” Cugnet added.
With a couple of new rural long-term care facilities now completed and occupied, and the construction of a new hospital/health care centre well underway in Kipling, the stage is being set for the next round of major capital projects in the region.
A new general hospital is on the planning board in Weyburn and a new regional nursing home in Estevan is also in the immediate mix. In both cases, the need to replace aging facilities, well beyond their “best before” date, is obvious.
In both instances, local fundraising efforts have been successful and concluded with over $20 million being raised for the Weyburn hospital and over $8 million in Estevan for a new regional nursing home.
“There are a lot of discussions going on regarding staffing ratios at long-term care facilities and long-term care in general. We’ve all seen and heard those concerns that were raised in the legislature building. Long-term care is going to be a big discussion in 2015 with regards to getting and providing proper care on a consistent basis,” Cugnet said.
Another provincial item that affects Sun Country is the winding down of the Lean practices contract with John Black and Associates, the American-based company that was given a $39 million contract to implement Japanese-styled assembly line techniques to health care services over a four-year period.
That contract is being wrapped up sooner, rather than later, with March 31 being the end-date for the contractor. But that doesn’t mean Lean technology and methods are being abandoned. In fact, Cugnet pointed out, Sun Country has its own Kaizen promotion office and Lean co-ordinator and enough people already trained in delivering Lean systems to the 2,200 or more Sun Country employees, to keep the program moving forward. She said there are about five Lean leaders in the health region who are completely certified and another 20 or more who are in training and should be able to wrap up their certification before the JBA contract expires in three months.
“There are transition plans in the province for this training so everything is just being moved up, so the Lean program is sustainable,” said Cugnet.
A physician residency program that will see Sun Country partner with the University of Saskatchewan’s medical program will move forward in 2015, too.
Cugnet said she figured that by June of this year they should find out if the local proposal to accept doctors under the residency program, will be successful.
“The proposal is to have two doctors assigned to Estevan in the first year under the family physician residency program, and ultimately to have four physicians in Estevan and four in Weyburn working within the residency program. It’s quite doable since we have more local physicians getting the background training they’ll need to keep working with the resident doctors. Dr. Tsoi in Estevan is working closely with the U of S on this file and so far the word coming from the Dean of the U of S program is pretty positive and they appear to be on board with the plan,” said Cugnet.
Sun Country’s health facilities underwent close scrutiny by the independent national accreditation committee in the past year, and passed the assessment requirements with a 95 per cent compliance rating. An auditor’s report on the information technology system was also undertaken.
“The pharmacy services assessments at St. Joe’s and Weyburn General were pretty positive too,” the CEO added.
“On the financial side, the budget is showing a small surplus at this point. A very small surplus considering the size of the overall budget ($147 million), and we don’t know what will be in the provincial budget that will come down in March. We have our concerns. We don’t want to lose jobs. We’re in good shape so far but there are always unexpected things,” she said.
The CEO explained one of those unexpected events that have to be accommodated for even though they aren’t acknowledged or accommodated in the existing budget, is the global planning for such things as having to handle a regional case of ebola, the disease that is wreaking havoc in western Africa.
“With all the travelling we have now, we have to ensure our key staff members are trained and protected. They have to prepare protocols to follow in the event we have a reported case. Protection equipment and materials have to be purchased and available and we have to find funds for all that within the current budget. So these are the type of things I’m talking about when we discuss unexpected or unplanned events.”
In previous years, regional floods and recovery systems, including the need to renovate health care centres following water damage, have also added unexpected expenses to the local budget that aren’t always covered with provincial recovery plans.
“We’re seeking a stable year in 2015. The CT scanner will be a big addition. The other projects we’ll move along, including a pediatric physicians attending the region on a regular basis, if we can arrange it. Implementing more Telehealth conferences between patients and doctors is another one. Those are things we can keep working on,” Cugnet said.
