IHA Promotes Innovations in Health Care

For Immediate Release  |  June 28, 2012

Interior Health Staff Recognized for Innovations in Health Care

Interior Health was recognized twice at the Excellence in BC Health Care Awards held June 25, 2012 in Vancouver. Presented by the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC), the awards recognize the efforts of health-care employees who provide quality care and acknowledge excellence and innovation in publicly funded health care.

Winners from Interior Health are:

Laurie Skene: Health Authority Gold Apple Winner
Laurie is a Surgical Services & Medical Device Reprocessing Clinical Practice Standards Coordinator out of Kelowna and has long been respected for her work as a perioperative nurse. Laurie has been instrumental in achieving standardization across Interior Health¹s 17 surgical sites. She created and maintains their surgical services and medical device reprocessing online manuals, which include more than 100 clinical practice standards. She has also undertaken the standardization of patient education tools for those undergoing shoulder and fractured hip surgery  no small feat given it required the approval of all of the region¹s surgeons, nursing and rehabilitation staff, dietitians, as well as other stakeholders. Through this work, Laurie has inspired staff and physicians to ensure clinical decisions and practices are evidence-based, comprehensive, and patient-focused.

Dr. Christopher Wilson: Top Innovation Award of Merit Recipient
Dr. Wilson, Clinical Psychologist at the Kelowna Mental Health and Substance Use (KMHSU) Centre, received a Top Innovation award of merit for his work on the Comprehensive Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Program Demonstration Project. Christopher was seeing an increase in clients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and, with just two clinicians leading its Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) groups, the waitlist had grown to two years. To address this issue, KMHSU offered a one-year demonstration project to increase its capacity to provide comprehensive DBT by providing training to all team leaders and interested clinicians, and to determine the effectiveness of this therapy in clients with BPD. After one year, the waitlist went from two years to zero, and due to its success the program is now being offered to clients with other diagnoses.

About the awards
The Excellence in BC Health Care Awards <http://www.bchealthcareawards.ca/Page3142.aspx>  were created in 2007 to celebrate successes in health care and to thank those who are often too busy to stop and appreciate their accomplishments. The awards are judged by a committee of volunteers from the health field as well as community leaders from business, science and technology, and academia. 

About Interior Health
Interior Health <http://www.interiorhealth.ca>  is committed to setting new standards of excellence in the delivery of health services to over 742,000 residents of the Southern Interior. Interior Health serves a large geographic area covering almost 216,000 square kilometres and includes larger cities such as Kelowna, Kamloops, Cranbrook, Trail, Penticton and Vernon, as well as a multitude of more rural and remote communities.