Senior administration with Interior Health paid a visit to the South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver on Friday. Registered Nurse Lindsay Chandler showed them how to use a piece of equipment called an OptiFlow machine, which regulates the flow of oxygen for patients who need continuous access to oxygen. Looking on (from left) are Interior Health board chair Erwin Malzer, CEO Chris Mazurkewich, Deb Runge, director of acute care services for the South Okanagan, Peter Entwistle, SOGH’s Chief of Staff. (Keith Lacey photo)
Not only is the South Okanagan General Hospital (SOGH) the largest employer in the Town of Oliver, but it is also the most efficient and best-run small town hospital in the entire – and massive – Interior Health region.
During one of their regular semi-annual tours of hospitals within the Interior Health coverage area, Chief Executive Officer Chris Mazurkewich and board chair Erwin Malzer visited SOGH to talk with staff, the hospital’s auxiliary members and senior administration on Friday.
They also set aside 20 minutes to talk to members of the media.
Also on hand for the media session was Deb Runge, Interior Health’s director of acute care for the South Okanagan, Peter Entwistle, the SOGH’s chief of staff, and Lori Motluk, executive director South Okanagan and North Okanagan Hospitals and Communities Integrated Services.
With more than 270 employers, the SOGH is the largest employer in the Town of Oliver, but Interior Health is also the largest employer is almost every small town under 5,000 people spread across the huge Interior Health region, said Mazurkewich.
“We’re the biggest employer in virtually every community that we serve within the Southern Interior,” he said. “We have about 19,000 employees and another 4,500 volunteers and auxiliary members. We also have roughly 1,800 physicians working for us.”
With this many employees, Interior Health plays a vital role in the economic success and survival of communities spread across its coverage area, which spreads from the Alberta and American borders to the east, the East and West Kootenay region, Williams Lake to the north and the Princeton and Merritt regions, he said.
“Our coverage area include the Thompson and Cariboo regions, the East and West Kootenays, Okanagan Valley, Shuswap Valley and Similkameen Valley,” he said. “It’s an area roughly the size of Oregon.”
There are 35 Local Health Authorities within the Interior Health coverage area.
Out of all the hospitals that operate under the Interior Health umbrella, SOGH is the most efficient of all of them, said Mazurkewich.
“This hospital offers the lowest cost delivery of all of the hospitals we operate,” he said. “Using quality indicators … that are recognized in the industry, this is the most efficient hospital of all of them within Interior Health.”
Malzer said that is something that every employee who works at the hospital should be very proud of.
He credited senior administration, all of the physicians and nursing staff, as well as the front line service providers for working together to run an efficient hospital that provides outstanding health care services to the thousands of patients who access the hospital every year.
Entwistle said it is rewarding to be the leader of a team of physicians who work so well together to provide top-notch health care services in a small town like Oliver.
“It’s really gratifying,” he said.
While there aren’t any major plans for hospital expansion in the next fiscal year, the hospital is continuing with its fundraising and lobbying efforts to the Ministry of Health to raise money for future expansion of the Emergency Room at SOGH, said Runge.
Entwistle is part of a regional health care team that has applied for $500,000 from a rural health care initiative to fund programs for addiction, chronic pain and physician recruitment in the South Okanagan.
This initiative is called the Community Sustainability Implementation Plan and the funding would be spread over two years and go towards assisting patients and recruiting physicians in Oliver, Osoyoos, Keremeos and Princeton, said Entwistle.
Malzer and Mazurkewich said they will continue to pay regular visits to hospital and Local Health Authorities across the Interior Health region as it provides a wonderful opportunity to speak directly with physicians, administrators and volunteers and gather input about what’s working in the health care system and what areas could use some improvement.
Malzer and Mazurkewich started their most recent tour by visiting Kamloops General Hospital last Wednesday and then visited the hospital in Princeton on Thursday before making the trip to Oliver.
They were both expected to be on hand Tuesday when the official sod turning ceremony is held to officially begin construction of the $312.5-million expansion of the Penticton Regional Hospital.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
