Dan Florizone named new president of Saskatoon Health Region

Dan Florizone has been named as the new president of the Saskatoon Health Region.He takes over the post in January.

Florizone is currently the Deputy Education Minister and Deputy Minister Responsible for Lean. He has also spent decades in health care administration, becoming the CEO of his first hospital when he was just 23.

The Lean program has become controversial in the last several months. Designed to streamline the province's health care system, the opposition NDP has called the project too expensive, and unpopular with doctors in the province.

While Florizone says Lean will become an important part of how the Saskatoon Health Region operates, he says organizing principles will always take a back seat to talking to patients and staff.

He plans on visiting every health region site in the province, no matter how small.

"I want to make sure I get to every site, that I get an opportunity to speak directly with patients, residents and clients," he said. "That I get to engage (with them), as the board has so directed."

While Florizone says there is a lot of good work going on in the region, he says there are always places that can be improved on. He wants doctors, nurses and other staff improving on a daily basis, continually looking for a better way to do their jobs.

"This is a large region," he said. "It's going to take some time to complete. My effort and energy will be on diving straight in, and starting to seek answers to those fundamental questions."

The new CEO says he also wants to focus on large projects like the Saskatchewan Children's Hospital, making sure they stay on schedule and budget.

Florizone replaces former CEO Maura Davies who resigned in October.