Interior Health Management Criticized

[Mrmarvingardens]

A recent roundtable involving management reviewing critiques from employees has resulted in CEO Chris Mazurkewich, being singled out and consuming humble pie.
Mazurkewich has been the CEO at IH for 25 months.
He was appointed by Christy Clark of the former Liberal government.
But his association with IH goes back much farther.
He was for many years the IH CFO, before moving to Alberta and working in the hospital system there, until he left under the current NDP government.
Some might recall that Mazurkewich, along with other management, created controversy by paying themselves executive rates of pay, when they replaced hourly paid workers during a strike in the 90's, which during this time, salaries and perks were in the 4 hundred thousand per year range.
Also, some questions were raised when, under Mazurkewich's financial management, the hospital paid too much (7 million) for the property now housing the IH Tertiary Treatment centre.
For some time, there has been much grumbling from those on the front lines, doctors, nurses etc.,that there needs to be some serious oversight on the operations of IH., which might include the sales pitch from the Kelowna city manager to convince IH to build their tower downtown. to,As the pr person at IH stated:"Now we will be together in one building which will make it much easier to have our meetings" A serious review of IH operations is long overdue.

[motorhomebabe]

No kidding! Retired from there a few years ago. We bitched about There being to many chiefs and not enough worker bees back then.Have not seen much change since then!Good way to cover your butt so you can keep your cushy job!

[daria]

Management needs to be reduced by SEVERAL layers, and replaced with frontline staff. Those salaries would be much better spent on direct patient care.

[RVThereYet]

http://www.sunshineliststats.com/Employer/249131/2016

In all fairness, and current issues aside, I don’t think Mr. Mazurkewich‘s salary is out of range for his position ($147K for 2016).

[lightspeed]

The guy is a bean counter, and has the personality of a rock. He was brought in to reduce costs and create efficiencies.

So we have a brand new building downtown that's already been outgrown, with inadequate staff parking.

And more managers, and more administration....

Go figure.

[techrtr]

I have a few friends who work there who all say working for IHA sucks. I've also known complete idiots and workplace bullies who got fired from several jobs before they found a safe haven at IHA.

[TylerM4]

Lotsa speculation going on here. I should expect nothing less from the forums I suppose. I suspect none of you know what the actual feedback was or who provided it.

IH sucks so bad to work at - yet somehow consistently makes it on the "Top employers in BC" lists.

Is it IH that attracts and refuses to remove poor quality workers? Or is it the unions who shelter and protect them making it nearly impossible to fire?

Where does the hostility come from? Why are people so willing to assume the worst?

[techrtr]

Lotsa speculation going on here. I should expect nothing less from the forums I suppose. I suspect none of you know what the actual feedback was or who provided it.

IH sucks so bad to work at - yet somehow consistently makes it on the "Top employers in BC" lists.

Is it IH that attracts and refuses to remove poor quality workers? Or is it the unions who shelter and protect them making it nearly impossible to fire?

Where does the hostility come from? Why are people so willing to assume the worst?

Those "Top Employer" lists are a joke. Employers fill out a questionnaire. It's based on things like salary and benefits, number of bathrooms etc. It's not based on employee feedback and they have no way of gauging morale or if managers are idiots. A media company runs "Canada's Top Employers." It's actually a business and it's not unbiased. Businesses will say whatever they have to in order to get on the list.

[Jflem1983]

Likely has a lot to do with injection bus . I know there is pushback from front line staff over this ridiculous junky hugging policy.

The bald doctor needs to be let go.

Overdose deaths are through the roof on his watch .

[the truth]

A recent roundtable involving management reviewing critiques from employees has resulted in CEO Chris Mazurkewich, being singled out and consuming humble pie.
Mazurkewich has been the CEO at IH for 25 months.
He was appointed by Christy Clark of the former Liberal government.
But his association with IH goes back much farther.
He was for many years the IH CFO, before moving to Alberta and working in the hospital system there, until he left under the current NDP government.
Some might recall that Mazurkewich, along with other management, created controversy by paying themselves executive rates of pay, when they replaced hourly paid workers during a strike in the 90's, which during this time, salaries and perks were in the 4 hundred thousand per year range.
Also, some questions were raised when, under Mazurkewich's financial management, the hospital paid too much (7 million) for the property now housing the IH Tertiary Treatment centre.
For some time, there has been much grumbling from those on the front lines, doctors, nurses etc.,that there needs to be some serious oversight on the operations of IH., which might include the sales pitch from the Kelowna city manager to convince IH to build their tower downtown. to,As the pr person at IH stated:"Now we will be together in one building which will make it much easier to have our meetings" A serious review of IH operations is long overdue.

i have said it forever, they are a bunch of over paid over educated completely useless , explains why ih has made and done nothing about the od issue, hell if anything they have made it worse

[youjustcomplain]

*removed*

[the truth]

*removed*

[Nedroj]

Having multiple nurse friends whom all work for IH I can tell you this, the front line staff are being used and abused at the cost of profits. Just ask any nurse about their regular day on the job and you'll overwhelmingly be told the following things:

1) That they are constantly short staffed as the person in charge of scheduling nurses gets a bonus if they come in under budget and that bonus gets bigger the more they can trim expenses at the direct cost of patient quality care.

2) They are overworked and leads to burning out which then leads to large amount of time off, health issues and them eventually leaving to work in another province or country.

3) They are significant dangers being a nurse at KJH where old people with failing health are put into the same area as ppl addicted to drugs and others with serious mental health issues. Its not safe for the patients and its not safe for the lone nurse having to deal with a combative drug fueled low life. Remember the majority of nurses are women

4) Unions protect the worst. As much as they benefit from being in a union they also know there are some very bad nurses out there that if it were a private business would have been fired years ago. But the unions will protect theses people even though there's complaints. Its like tenure for nurses without earning it.

[RupertBear]

Likely has a lot to do with injection bus . I know there is pushback from front line staff over this ridiculous junky hugging policy.

The bald doctor needs to be let go.

Overdose deaths are through the roof on his watch .

Likely has very little to do with the injection bus, and more to do with the day to day operation of Interior Health and the many toxic workplaces management directives have created.
Talk to the front-line staff; the doctors, nurses, care aids, lab techs and housekeeping staff to get a handle on what works and what doesn't work in IH.

[sublime]

Having multiple nurse friends whom all work for IH I can tell you this, the front line staff are being used and abused at the cost of profits. Just ask any nurse about their regular day on the job and you'll overwhelmingly be told the following things:

1) That they are constantly short staffed as the person in charge of scheduling nurses gets a bonus if they come in under budget and that bonus gets bigger the more they can trim expenses at the direct cost of patient quality care.

2) They are overworked and leads to burning out which then leads to large amount of time off, health issues and them eventually leaving to work in another province or country.

3) They are significant dangers being a nurse at KJH where old people with failing health are put into the same area as ppl addicted to drugs and others with serious mental health issues. Its not safe for the patients and its not safe for the lone nurse having to deal with a combative drug fueled low life. Remember the majority of nurses are women

4) Unions protect the worst. As much as they benefit from being in a union they also know there are some very bad nurses out there that if it were a private business would have been fired years ago. But the unions will protect theses people even though there's complaints. Its like tenure for nurses without earning it.

100% agree on all those points having a family member who works in the system.

All I hear is there is a new cut here and a new cut there. Cutting a position and then adding it someone else's work load. There used to be managers for each unit and now there could be a manager in charge of 4 units or more. The next cut coming up is limiting food and drinks available on the premises (juice, cheese etc.).

In comparison to other health authorities IH is much like the City of Kelowna... they think they're bigger than they in fact are. Really both are in need of a reality check. Ask hospital staff how much more advanced hospital procedures are in other jurisdictions or provinces and there'a a massive difference how things are run.