Well, concerning rationalization, and this really is where innovation comes from, one of the people who serve on our committee is the CEO of MD Ambulance, in Saskatoon. They conceived, developed, and executed a concept called a “health bus”. This is basically a radically modified, very large mobile home, which travels through the inner city of Saskatoon to deliver health care services directly.
This did not come from the health region. It came from an individual provider who has contracted services with the health region. It was through their constant quest for finding the means to deliver services that they developed this innovation. It has received six national awards. It is being constantly investigated by others as to its potential for implementation.
Another area of activity that we can be particularly proud of is the implementation of Lean management principles within our health care region. We had a very early example of this, which related to lab practices at one of our laboratories. It dramatically improved turnaround time, cost of delivery, accuracy of service, and it freed up space in the health care system. That is now being applied across the province.