So much for transparency and let's bid farewell to their mission, vision and value statements.
The Sun Country Health Region just hasn't been able to escape negativity these past few months. They just don't seem to get it.
Now it's accountability, transparency and confidentiality issues that are on the table and open for criticism as this regional authority stumbles from one troublesome issue to the next.
This past week it was learned that the regional health body sent out letters of apology to 66 clients whose pharmaceutical and health records were compromised by unauthorized access made by an unnamed Sun Country employee.
That's bad enough.
It appears now that administration and management have exacerbated the problem by administering a punishment well below what would have been expected for such a serious breach.
Of course we can only guess at what the punishment was since Sun Country was also loathe to provide any detail about that either with CEO Marga Cugnet stating that they took their cue from other provincial security breach punishments in the past. The fact that these precedent-setting wrist slappings were totally inadequate, appears to be lost on Sun Country.
Instead of instant termination of employment for the offender, it now looks as if he or she will receive a 10 day or two week suspension without pay and then be accepted back into the fold. What kind of workplace environment they will find there is anybody's guess.
Saskatchewan's privacy commissioner (see story in this week's edition) has gone on record as suggesting that the health agencies in this province aren't getting it when it comes breaches of confidentiality and by setting a course of minor punishments, they are only encouraging others who might be tempted to "sneak a peek" at confidential records to go ahead and do it. If your only penalty is a two-week unpaid vacation, that's less than a wrist slap. In other jurisdictions where they have kept electronic records longer than they have in Saskatchewan, they learned the lesson quickly. Those who breach the confidence there are summarily dismissed and fined amounts of between $10,000 and $50,000.
In Saskatchewan, we hear that the Justice Ministry has no stomach for addressing the problem.
There isn't enough space in this editorial section to re-hash the mini-litany of misdeeds and miscalculations that have occurred in Sun Country over the past 12 months or so, but they have been documented.
With the board of Sun Country now retreating into the "tell them as little as we possibly can get away with," mode, by not revealing names of offenders, severance details or terms and conditions of punishment for misdeeds of confidentially, they are simply setting the stage for intervention from some other body that will be able to lead this two-float parade and one-ring circus, with or without the clowns.
As for those Sun Country mission, vision and value statements something about safe provision of care, a public policy supporting healthy living, healthy people in healthy communities, valuing privacy and confidentiality, social and ethical responsibility and accountability well, it seems these pillars for a healthy community are simply blowing smoke.
