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Sask. Health Authority holds first board meeting

Patients are unlikely to see difference in care, CEO Livingstone said
Health authority

On Monday, Dec. 4, the Saskatchewan Health Authority held its first board meeting in Saskatoon. That day, 12 health regions ceased to exist, in order for a single health authority to take its place.

 

In a press conference following the meeting, SHA CEO Scott Livingstone and Chair Dick Carter answered questions from local reporters and reporters from across the province who phoned into the conference.

 

“It is truly day one and we’ve just started this multi-year journey towards transforming the Saskatchewan health care system. All the work that’s been done to date is really accumulating in making sure the organization was as prepared as possible for day one, and ensuring that we would be able not just to legally operate but also to ensure the transition was an smooth as possible to ensure the safety and quality of our patients, and the staff that take care of them,” Livingstone said.

 

One of the SHA’s goals repeatedly stated in media reports and in documents has been to not drastically change patient experience, such that patients aren’t likely to notice that new health authority began. Livingstone said there wouldn’t be much change on day one to ensure safety and quality of patient care. Waiting times to see specialists, or times for being booked for surgery, won’t change, Livingstone said.

 

One planned way of changing patient experience would be that patients would no longer need to, for example, repeat their family histories if they go to a hospital in a region different from their typical region.

 

Thus far, the SHA has been hiring the senior leadership team, and Livingstone said 95 per cent of those positions have been filled. The board of directors, the highest decision-making body of the SHA, consists of 10 members, including Dr. Janet Tootoosis from North Battleford. Some positions beneath the board of directors include a chief audit officer (who is yet to be determined), Suann Laurent as chief operating officer, executive director of governance and policy Lori Frank, vice president of infrastructure, information and support Andrew Will, along with executives in charge of integrated urban health, integrated rural health, and integrated northern health.

 

Sharon Garratt is vice president of integrated urban health and chief nursing officer, and Dr. Mark Wahba is physician executive of integrated urban health. Karen Earnshaw is vice president of integrated rural health, while Dr. Kevin Wasko is physician executive of integrated rural health.

 

Livingstone said the next hiring phase will be the director level (beneath the aforementioned positions) although hiring these positions will take a period of months. Roles directing facility management, nutrition, and pharmacy will also be filled. Roles at the director level will be distributed across the province.

 

“They will have provincial responsibilities but we’ll be locating them closer to home, really being true to that provincial oversight with local presence and local management for the health care system to be able to liaise with the staff, patients and communities,” Livingstone said.

 

Livingstone addressed the concern that communities would lose local voices in a single health authority. Livingstone said there’d be different ways of maintaining local voices. One is designing zones across the province to help distribute administrative and clinical staff, although these would be distinct from regions in that zone leadership wouldn’t have budgets or independent decision-making. Another initiative Livingstone mentioned is community advisory networks, which Livingstone said would “engage with communities across the province and other stakeholders to help redesign the system.”

 

Community advisory networks currently exist, although it is unclear from the available information if they will change.

 

According to a Dec. 4 press release from the Ministry of Health, “maintaining community engagement and local relationships is a priority for the Saskatchewan Health Authority, and a framework for Community Advisory Networks will be developed in the future. In the meantime, current Community Advisory Networks will continue to operate as usual.”

 

Reporters also asked about severance payouts for health region staff (which were reported to be $4.1 million as of Dec. 4) who won’t be with the health authority. Livingstone said the total amount of severance paid out will take a few months to determine, since people who filled previous roles could apply for new jobs in the health authority. The amount of time it would take to recoup the costs of severance is also to be determined.

 

The Ministry of Health wrote in an email the total amount of severance to be paid to former health region staff as a result of the amalgamation was estimated in 2016-17 to be $19.5 million.

 

The SHA estimates the amalgamation will save a total of $10-20 million annually by 2018/19.

 

A complete transformation from regions to a single authority, Livingstone said, will take multiple years, as is the case with the single health governance organizations in Alberta and Nova Scotia, which continue to change.