Highlights from the June 27 meeting of the Sun Country Regional Health Authority (SCRHA):

*Significant progress has occurred with the effort to build an integrated acute and long-term care health facility in Kipling. The Sun Country Health Region (SCHR) will host a public meeting in the community in mid-July to explain their plan. A request for proposals to build the facility will be issued before the end of summer.

*SCRHA members approved a revised policy to guide future meetings of its community leadership networks, which were created in the fall of 2011. The first meetings were held this past spring. The networks provide a forum for community leaders in the region to exchange information with the SCRHA, provide advice and perspective on the direction of health services, and influence the vision and strategic direction of the region in an open and collaborative manner. The SCRHA will host a new series of meetings in several communities this fall.

*As part of a plan to create a single point of entry for all patients discharged in the province by March 2013, SCHR’s home care services, along with the Bengough Health Centre and the Radville Marian Health Centre, are part of a provincial pilot project to ensure all necessary information and services are provided to the patients when leaving hospital or another facility.

*Some staff members are not following the proper glove use procedures to stop infections. More education sessions are being planned, and regular audits of glove use and hand hygiene methods will be conducted.

*To help meet the goal of zero workplace injuries by 2017, the region’s occupational health and safety co-chairs will be trained this summer in the best methods to determine the root cause of staff injuries. Other staff members will be trained in the fall.

*Training in the Lean system of organizing the workplace, and creating a system that continuously adopts improvements, is going ahead. Groups of senior leaders and managers were being trained during the last week in June.

*Paperless pay statements are now available to all members of the staff through a secure provincial website. About 61 per cent of staff members have registered.

*Fifteen registered nurses (RNs); three summer nursing students; four licensed practical nurses; one combined lab/X-ray technician; and two cooks were hired in SCHR between May 15 and June 18.

*Recruitment of family doctors is continuing for several communities, including Estevan, Weyburn, Arcola, Coronach, Kipling, Oxbow and Redvers.

*Nursing students will begin a six-week clinical practicum in July in Arcola, Estevan and Weyburn.

*Several doctors in the health region are mentoring Saskatchewan medical students this summer. Dr. Lise Morin in Arcola; Dr. Charles Omosigho, Dr. Edward Tsoi and Dr. Khalid Sheikh of Estevan; Dr. Karen Bigland, Dr. Jessi Warren, Dr. Mary McCollam and Dr. Kathleen Fong of Weyburn; and Dr. Werner Oberholzer of Radville will all mentor students at different stages of their medical training.