Sunrise Health Region interim CEO Suann Laurent remembers 2010 as a year in which the health region administration hardly had time to breathe.
New developmentsLaurent's own appointment as interim CEO was one of the more significant changes in Sunrise this year. Before his sudden retirement at the end of July, Joe Kirwan had been the only CEO the health region had known in its eight-year history.
The year brought good news for the region. Sunrise was awarded full accreditation in November, showing that it met an exhaustive list of national standards while at the same time receiving a road map for areas of improvement.
"That's a lot of work for all of our quality improvement teams," says Laurent, "but a very good process for us to go through to ensure that we're on track with where we need to be."
In December, a national report showed that Sunrise had a Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio of 70 compared to the national average of 100. That figure is up eight points from last year, but still among the lowest in Canada.
The nationally-publicized scandal surrounding Yorkton radiologist Dr. Darius Tsatsi was one issue the health region was happy to move past in 2010. In the end, a review that began in 2009 of nearly 70,000 of Dr. Tsatsi's medical examinations concluded in June, finding significant differences of interpretation in about 2.8 percent of cases.
But even the more routine work of Sunrise's administration was enough to make 2010 an enormously busy year, says Laurent.
New servicesSpecialized autism spectrum disorder services were a new addition to the region's Children's Therapies Program this year. Assistance with speech and language pathology and physical/occupational therapies are now available to children with ASD through a centrally-coordinated program.
"It's very important that we have those kinds of services in Saskatchewan," says Laurent.The Integrated Stroke Strategy project for which Sunrise was chosen as a provincial pilot got into full swing in 2010. The project unites stroke treatment and rehabilitation services--many of which were previously only available in Regina or Saskatoon--under a single umbrella in Yorkton."We're very proud of that program," Laurent says.
The Saskatchewan RIS/PACS (Radiology Information System and Picture Archiving and Communications System) is another key service now online in parts of the health region. Once completed, the system will allow physicians to share diagnostic images instantly and electronically with one another across the province.
Refining servicesThe Sunrise administration made numerous efforts in 2010 to improve its relationships with staff, physicians, and the public in hopes of improving health services.
The Releasing Time to Care initiative, currently in progress at the Yorkton Regional Health Centre and the St. Paul Lutheran Home, is among these. Through a combination of data analysis and staff consultation, the initiative aims to free up time for caregivers to spend with patients.
"It's the nurses, the managers, all of the staff giving their ideas and expertise to actually change and streamline their work environment," Laurent explains. "The feedback we've gotten has been very good, and it's empowering staff to make a difference in their work environment."
The initiative will be further expanded in the new year.
Lean initiatives are a similar process now underway in the health region. A particular stream of events--for instance, the experience of a surgical patient between the time a surgery request is made and the time he or she is sent home--is analyzed for inefficiencies and trimmed down, reducing delays in the procedure for the future. More services will be going under the microscope in 2011.
The Sunrise board's Customer Engagement Plan was approved this year and is currently 小蓝视频 implemented.
"We're looking at how we can put more customer service into healthcare. How do we make sure that we're providing the best care that we can?"
Starting in January, all staff will go through a mandatory four-hour training period to be briefed on the new customer service principles.
The region responded to complaints from doctors with the creation of a Physician Liaison Council in July."It provides another mechanism for communication between the board and the regional practitioner association," explains Laurent.
Sunrise doctors were also promoted to an expanded lineup of clinical chiefs this year. The clinical chief of obstetrics position was reinstated and a clinical chief of radiology was added.
InfrastructureImprovements to Sunrise facilities continued in 2010, although much work remains to be done. Phase 2 of the Energy Renewal and Retrofit Project will be completed early in the new year, adding to the $1 million in annual energy savings already realized by Phase 1. Block funding from the province helped replace windows, power and air handling equipment, boilers, and other infrastructure around the region in 2010, and that work will also continue into 2011.
The replacement of a power transfer switch at Yorkton Regional Health Centre, which required shutting down most of the facility for two nights in October, was one of the largest equipment upgrades of the year. The service interruption put the Yorkton area in a precarious situation, but the job was completed without incident.
"In both instances, I was just awed by the work of everyone involved to make that happen," says Laurent.
Future challengesAging infrastructure will continue to be one of the health region's major challenges going into the future. Sunrise recently completed a 15-year plan for addressing these needs, and identified three facilities as priorities: the Yorkton Regional Health Centre, St. Anthony's Hospital in Esterhazy, and a possible new integrated healthcare facility in Canora.
"There's a huge process to go through to get this on the provincial radar screen, but we started that process already in 2010 and will continue through 2011," says Laurent.
Recruitment of medical professionals is another ongoing issue. The region is currently short about nine family doctors and has many openings for nurse practitioners and other roles. A number of doctors and nurses were recruited in 2010, and Laurent says the region considers itself on target towards meeting its hiring goals.
The budget issues that required cutbacks in a number of areas this year will also follow the health region into 2011.
"With all the hard work we did this year in our budget implementation, that will put us on a better foundation for the following year," says Laurent, but the CEO cautions the public not to expect a miraculous turnaround.
"I don't expect us to get more funding. ... We were in a deficit position before. We're trying to climb out of the hole, and we need to stay on course with the strategies we have."
Personal messageSuann Laurent expresses her gratitude to the health region's partners, including The Health Foundation and the Community Health Advisory Committees, and passes on a message to all Sunrise employees."I'm humbled by our staff--the commitment and dedication through adversity. It's hard to stand strong through these tough decisions that we've made, but people have stepped up to the plate and done the right thing for the big picture. I really appreciate all the hard work everybody does every day to improve safety and quality for the people we serve."
