At the January 27 meeting of the Sunrise Regional Health Authority, Lawrence Chomos, the board chair, reported on activities for the previous month which included a January 15 meeting with Senator Ted Quewezance of Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and member of the Keeseekoose First Nation, and Chris Lafontaine, executive director with the Saskatchewan Community Justice Division to discuss First Nations’ community health services.
In the CEO report, Suann Laurent, president and CEO, 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 95 per cent of the 1,900 hundred key service elements reviewed by the survey team, according to a summary of meeting highlights.
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 a follow-up once fully deployed in April.
The CT scanner at Yorkton Regional Health Centre will be replaced in February and March, the summary said. Replacement of this vital equipment necessitates extensive electrical and cooling system upgrades and an unavoidable interruption in CT scan service 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, it said. InTouch Health offers technology enabled services to health care 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 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.
At the January meeting, the board approved the purchase of capital equipment and projects totaling $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’s 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 Tracy Bielinski, the diabetes nutritionist.
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 events 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 disbursed to assist 20 community groups for health enhancing events in 13 communities in the region.
Governance process policies reviewed in January were for board and committee expenses, code of conduct, the board team charter, conflict of interest, board planning cycle and agenda control, the policy monitoring schedule, board member non-performance, and for 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 health care workers, smoking, and compensation and benefits.
The board also received the semi-annual report about client safety reporting and provincial issue alerts.
The Financial Condition Report, up to and including November 30 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 ww.sunrisehealthregion.sk.caunder “Reports and Studies”.
The next meeting of the board will be on March 30.
