Southern Health-Santé Sud is taking on a new look.
    
Board Chair Abe Bergen says 2016 will be remembered for Chief Executive Officer Kathy McPhail announcing her retirement, but also for what happened in early November when Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen appointed new regional health authority boards.

"There are five representatives from this area," notes Bergen. "We've had two board meetings, a couple of orientations, provincial orientation. So we feel like we're acclimatizing, we're getting used to the issues and getting our feet wet."

According to McPhail, one of the highlights this year was the feedback they received from the national patient survey. McPhail says between 89% and 97% of people are satisfied with services at hospitals in the region. That includes physician and nursing care, communication and discharge planning.

"Looking at our responses, we can feel pretty comfortable that on average we have a really good quality of care that is being provided in our hospitals," says McPhail.

In 2016, the regional health authority completed a community health assessment. McPhail says the assessment looks at health status, but also gives statistics on population and potential growth.

Outgoing Southern Health CEO Kathy McPhail

"We've taken that document and from that, it's the foundational document, we have built a strategic plan for the next five years," she says.

McPhail says another highlight of the last twelve months was working with researchers from the University of Lethbridge on mental health in Low German speaking communities. The research was done by Dr. Judith Kulig and Ling Ling Fan. Interviews were done in such places as Steinbach and the end result is a body of research to be used for client care.

According to McPhail, another highlight in 2016 has been their Aboriginal High School Internship Program. She notes this is the result of the Truth And Reconciliation Commission report. Through this program, high school students are invited to buddy with staff in a hospital. The second part of this program sees these teenagers hired on by the hospital.

"We had, I believe twenty-four graduates from that program last year," says McPhail. "Lots of these kids go back to high school and our aim is that we keep them in high school and they graduate and then of course they will come in to the health profession."

Also in 2016, Southern Health-Santé Sud took part in a pilot program through Accreditation Canada, called Linguistic Accreditation. McPhail says they are a designated bilingual region and so they went through accreditation, looking at policies in relation to services in French and hiring practices.

"Kudos to the folks who have worked so diligently in ensuring that we have really solid policies and practices around our bilingual designation," adds McPhail.

2016 also saw the establishment of more My Health Teams in the region. McPhail says Steinbach jumped out of the gate about four years ago and they are now trying to replicate that across the region.

Michael Rutledge took over the position of Medical Officer of Health with Sante Sud as of October 1

"We have a Francophone My Health Team, which is a little different shaped because it has two hubs, one around Ste.Anne and area and the other around the Notre Dame area," shares McPhail.

She says the other two My Health Teams are now up and running in the Portage area as well as Morden/Winkler.

In September of this year, McPhail says they rolled out the newborn hearing screening. With Bethesda as the base, she says it is important to catch kids early if they are hearing impaired. And that is exactly what this program is meant to do.

Another highlight for 2016, according to McPhail has been the opening of the health clinic at Steinbach Regional Secondary School. She says Hanover School Division was been a wonderful partner in getting this off the ground. McPhail says teenagers often don't want to keep their family doctor and this is a significant step forward in that regard. She adds it is also helpful for those wanting to see a nurse now, and not in three weeks.

And finally, McPhail says in 2016 they began implementing a region wide central referral for colonoscopies. McPhail says wait times were exceptionally long in some pockets of the region and this system allows a person to get the procedure done in a more timely manner.

"The process now screens so that those that are most urgent and need done most urgently are up at the front of the line," explains McPhail.