'Many things' have to change, says new Sask. health authority CEO Scott Livingstone

The Saskatchewan government has appointed Scott Livingstone, the current head of the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, as the CEO of the province'ssoon-to-launch health super region.

The government announced the appointment on Wednesday morning.

Livingstone will begin his new role once the Saskatchewan Heath Authority is officially established sometime this fall.

He saidone focus in the role will be making things easier for people who use and work in the health system.

Livingstone said with the current12 health regions, there are often 12 different ways of doing things, which can cause confusion.

"There's so many things that have to change, but having a senior leadership team, a single governance model, I think will help support decision making throughout the organization and a unified focus of effort and strategy," Livingstone said.

Those changes will take place over multiple years rather than all at once, he said.

"It's not going to happen simply on Day 1 and folks need to understand that," Livingstone said.

Livingstoneis the former CEO of the Saskatchewan Health Information Network, now known as eHealth Saskatchewan.

"Scott is passionate about health careand brings a strong patient focus to this new role," said Dick Carter, the chair of the new board, in a press release.

A launch date for the new health authority has yet to be confirmed, though the government expects it to be in late fall.

Livingstone will be paid a salary of nearly $400,000.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said the salary was determined after a review of other health organizations of a similar size.

Director for board also tapped

The government also announced thatDr. Preston Smith, the dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, will join Carter on the health authority's 10-member board of directors.

The new board will replace the current 12 individual health authorities spread across the province.

Union concerns

Before Wednesday's announcement, the Canadian Union of Public Employees released information critical about the government's ongoing health spending on Lean initiatives, which were intended to focus onrooting out waste in the health-care system.

According to documents obtained through an access-to-information request, there are still 17 quality improvementor Leanoffices in the health system.

Between 2012 and 2015, benefits and salaries forfull-time employees in those officestotalledabout $54million, according to the documents.

"It is appalling that the government is still spending money on the failed Lean initiative instead of investing in front-line health-care workers," said SandraSeitz, president of theCUPESaskatchewan Health Care Council.

A report published last year in a medical journal said for every dollar saved by Lean, Saskatchewan spent $1,511.

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As of February 2017, the government had reduced its employees within Lean health-quality improvement offices to 138, down from 173 in 2016.

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