Freeing up time

Last week I went to Weyburn with the Deputy Minister to tour Weyburn General Hospital and discuss Releasing Time to Care with healthcare professionals.

Releasing Time to Care is basically a Lean process used to free up caregivers' time so they can spend more time on direct patient care. The premise is that frontline staff, rather than the Ministry identify and alter inefficient practices. Though doing this healthcare professionals will have more time to spend with patients.

Although the program began with nursing staff, everyone involved in providing care or services (care assistants, pharmacists, therapists, physicians, housekeeping staff, maintenance workers, and dietary staff) have an important role to play in implementing Releasing Time to Care. This is because creating efficiencies in isolation of each other will have less of a positive impact for patients, and we want to maximize the benefits of the program.

In Weyburn, the Deputy Minister and Health Quality Council gave a short presentation and then let the healthcare professions comment and ask questions. Since Releasing Time to Care is newer to Weyburn than some of the other regions, there were some skeptics, but we are planning to return in a couple months and see how they are doing.

Similarly, in the spirit of freeing up time I also got to present the new email and meeting protocol the Ministry has adopted to the Senior Leadership Team (an internal meeting with the Deputy Minister, Assistant Deputy Ministers and Executive Directors). We are piloting the changes in order to get through emails, and manage meetings more effectively.