October 01, 2007

The Board of Directors of Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation held its regular monthly meeting September 24, 2007 at the Saint John Regional Hospital. The following are highlights of that meeting:

Diabetes presentation

Bonnie McGraw and Liz Wetmore from St. Joseph’s Community Health Centre and Jill Barton McPhee, AHSC Administrative Director, presented “Speaking out for Diabetes … A Time for Change” This video explored the many challenges in maintaining good health for the increasing numbers in our population who have the disease. The presenters also stressed the importance of funding for diabetic supplies and research into the disease. AHSC Board Chairperson Paschal Chisholm thanked the group for the screening of “an excellent and powerful; film.” He said that the presentation would be an excellent resource as we move forward in the discussion.

Report of the CEO

President and CEO Dora Nicinski informed Board members that Charlotte County Hospital will develop a satellite Pulmonary Rehab Clinic in collaboration with NB Heart Centre. The purpose of the clinic is to provide assessment and education to patients diagnosed with respiratory ailments, particularly COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). The aim of the program is to decrease hospital admissions for patients with this condition.

Nicinski also provided Board members with a report on AHSC’s Strategic Directions that are being monitored through an indicator reporting system.

Nicinski made Board members aware that the devolution of Emergency Medical Services is ongoing with a target date of December 16 for process conclusion. At that time the provincial ambulance service will be administered by Medavie Blue Cross.

The number of patients occupying acute care beds in AHSC facilities across region 2 while awaiting alternate level of care continues to rise with 218 patients waiting on this list. As Nicinski shared this news with Board members she distributed the Hay Benchmarking Comparison of Canadian Teaching Hospitals. These statistics demonstrate that the Saint John Regional Hospital has a higher number of “alternative level of care days” than comparable teaching hospital nationally. The productivity and acuity indicators show both the changes and successful response to those challenges.

In the Annual Report of Hospital Services for the fiscal year 2005-06 Nursing, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Services are favourable in the provincial perspective.

Executive Committee

With the recent report from the Commission on Post Secondary Education, the Executive Committee recommended the following to the Board: “that a letter be sent to the Premier, appropriate ministers and copied to MLAs stating that the future of the Anglophone Medical Education Program not be jeopardized by whatever structural and other changes are eventually approved by the province and that the program be included within a structure within UNB Saint John that meets the requirements of Dalhousie University.” The resolution was approved by the Board.

Finance Committee

	5 Months ended August 2007	5 Months ended August 2006
Shareable Surplus (Deficit)	$0.556 M	($0.243) M
Medicare Deficit	($0.394 M)	($0.400 M)
Non-shareable Surplus (Deficit)	$0.199 M	$0.439 M
Board Surplus	$0.266 M	$0.473 M
Amortization of Assets	($0.419 M)	($0.565 M)
Total Surplus (Deficit)	$0.208 M	($0.296 M)

Other

• G Allen Phillips and Tom Jarrett were welcomed as new members to AHSC’s Board of Directors
• Margaret Melanson has been named AHSC Vice president of Clinical Facility and Support Services, replacing Ken Baird who resigned earlier this month. Melanson begins in her new role on October 22.

Contact: Patricia Crowdis
Director of Communications and Media Relations
648-6116

Copyright © 2007 Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation. All rights reserved.