Congratulations Dr. Richard Roland Lindenschmidt (left) and Dr. Habtu Demsas (right), who were presented with Physician Emeritus Awards by Dr. Charles Penner at the Spring Physician Dinner on April 25 at Selkirk Golf and Country Club.

May 1 was National Physicians Day, which is an ideal time to express appreciation for our physicians, including two longtime Selkirk doctors who won Physician Emeritus Awards

On April 25, Dr. Habtu Demsas and Dr. Richard Roland Lindenschmidt were presented with the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority’s Physician Emeritus Award for exemplary service and expertise to their community.

Dr. Demsas has practised for almost 45 years and plans to retire in October. Nominated by physician colleagues, Dr. Demsas has served the community in Selkirk for 35 years and was instrumental in starting the cancer outreach program 30 years ago.

Dr. Lindenschmidt has been practising in the community for more than 40 years. His colleagues who nominated him pointed out how dependable he is and his exemplary bedside manner and commitment to his patients. Dr. Lindenschmidt retired last week.

Read more.

Representatives from Manitoba Association for Safety in Healthcare evaluated the nominations and chose Rose-Ann as the winner!

Two different colleagues nominated Rose-Ann, who works as an admitting clerk in Teulon. 

One co-worker shared some thoughts on Rose-Ann’s safety focus: “Rose-Ann has been a driving force in Teulon’s success in being SafeWORK certified. She took on the challenge and with her positive attitude and determination has been a fantastic asset to Teulon as part of our Safety Committee and always gives constructive feedback and is willing to help problem solve.”

A second staff member nominated Rose-Ann on behalf of the team at Teulon’s hospital and Goodwin Lodge.

“Rose-Ann is singlehandedly the reason our facility staff know about the new SafeWORK protocols and is always available to answer any questions we may have. Every Wednesday, she organizes the Site Safety Huddle, which helps keep staff in the loop from all departments on what they need to know. ...Rose-Ann is always working tirelessly to keep our facility up to date with information and never refuses to lend a helping hand when asked." Read more.

Rose-Ann will receive a Hype Jacket from the online IERHA boutique and the runners-up will receive a lunch bag from the IERHA boutique.

Safety and Health Week focuses on the importance of preventing injury and illness in the workplace and raises understanding and awareness of safety and health issues.

This year Safety & Health Week is May 1 to 6. IERHA has worked with Blue Cross to deliver various EAP sessions virtually over the lunch hour.

For EAP session details/subject, click "More Info" on the LMS course description or visit StaffNet. Registration for these sessions will be required and must be done on the Learn Flex LMS. The session title is IERHA - EAP - Lunch & Learn (Virtual) for all sessions. Simply chose the date you would like to attend.

All sessions are scheduled for one hour. Registered staff will receive a Zoom/ Teams link for the session closer to session date. Click here to see a poster with more info.

• TODAY! May 3 from 11 a.m. to noon — Habits: What to Change and What to Keep   
• May 4 from noon to 1 p.m. — Preventing burnout and completing the stress cycle    
• May 5 from 11 a.m. to noon — Shift Work                  

Clean Your Hands Day is an annual event to raise awareness about the significant impact hand hygiene makes in saving lives by reducing the spread of infections.

Proper hand hygiene is one of the single most important ways to stop the spread of infections.

Help spread the word about Clean Your Hands Day! Use this Teams background to show your commitment to having clean hands.

This week learn more about how services are evaluated and the importance of the IERHA Strategic Plan!

How will Accreditation Canada surveyors evaluate our programs and services?

Surveyors use tracer methodology to evaluate programs and services during the on-site survey. During a tracer, surveyors observe and interact with a wide variety of team members, patients and families, and stakeholders to gather evidence about the quality and safety of care and services in a particular service area.

It is important to note that surveyors are not evaluating individual team members' performance during a tracer. They are observing processes and procedures to assess compliance with standards.  

Our on-site survey will occur June 19 to 23, 2023, when nine surveyors will visit programs and services across the region. Click here to meet the surveyors scheduled to visit our region! If you see a surveyor, stop and chat. It is a great way to share your experience and let them know what you do to contribute to safe, quality patient care. 

Get to Know Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority’s Strategic Plan

In May 2021 IERHA launched a new strategic plan for 2021-2028. IERHA’s board of directors were joined by more than 90 stakeholders for strategic planning days. Among those present to guide development of the strategic plan were elected municipal officials, members of our local health involvement groups, First Nation health directors, educators, affiliated health organization representatives, staff and physicians. The strategic plan includes new vision, mission and value statements as well as six strategic goals (outlined below).

Health-care organizations developing and monitoring a strategic plan is an expectation outlined in the Accreditation Canada Standards. We look forward to having the opportunity to promote and share our strategic plan and the progress to date!  

If you have any questions about accreditation preparation, please speak to your manager or to your region’s accreditation coordinator (bzelenitsky@ierha.ca) or visit StaffNet to find tips, tools and posters by clicking CLICK HERE. 

Madeline Mayer Somers, 12, is encouraging everyone to pay attention to how they dispose of face masks in an effort to protect animals and the environment.

While doing extra work in Girl Guides, she learned how birds sometimes mistake plastic for food and eat it, which can cause harm. She started to think about how masks might have the same negative impact, so she suggests tearing ear-loops before disposal.

“Lots of animals are being negatively affected by disposable masks and their ear-loops. Animals like birds and sea turtles and even deer are harmed because, if masks aren't disposed of properly, animals will try to eat them,” said Madeline, whose mom Belinda Mayer works as a regional patient care manager at Selkirk Regional Health Centre.

“The loops can suffocate animals because it can get tangled around their beaks or necks or any part of their body, even their wings, and they can't get it off.”

Madeline made a poster to raise awareness about the negative impact of disposable face masks. She contacted Greenpeace, which supported her by providing photos depicting animals tangled in ear-loops.

Her campaign continues to gain momentum since a hospital in Winnipeg asked to put up her posters. In addition, CBC interviewed Madeline about her campaign. Click here to read the article.

“I can raise awareness so people will dispose of masks in a way that is less harmful to wildlife and to our planet. I am taking small steps that become big steps to preserve our planet and the life in it,” she said.

“Garbage doesn’t just disappear, and neither do face masks. So tear your loops before you trash your mask — it only takes a second. With my poster, I am saving lives, one mask at a time. I hope you will do this too."

Manitoba recently announced it will begin collecting race, ethnicity and Indigenous identity information from hospital patients accessing health-care services across our province. Click here to read the memo.

The collection of race/ethnic and Indigenous (REI) identity data is an important tool to enable health systems planning and management in an effort to ensure all communities receive equitable health care. Shared Health and all service delivery organizations will collect REI identity data as part of routine demographic data collection at hospital registration.

Training has been developed for health information staff and non-health information staff (excluding diagnostic imaging) who collect demographic information in the electronic patient record (EPR). Obtaining verbal consent is key to this process and patients are within their rights to decline the collection of this information, without it impacting their individualized care.

REI identity data will be governed by the Race, Ethnicity and Indigenous Identity Data Governance Framework, and data reporting will be informed in part by health priorities identified through community engagement.

The collection of REI identity data is anticipated to begin on May 11, 2023, in hospitals across Manitoba.

About 200 people attended the April 27 Career Expo in Pine Falls. Staff received great feedback from teachers, the principal, students and our staff. Overall, it was a very successful event!

View the full career fair schedule here: Career Fairs - Interlake-Eastern RHA (ierha.ca)

If you hear of a career fair occurring in a community near you or if you are interested in participating in a career fair to promote your profession, please contact us at info@ierha.ca.

May 5 marks The National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People, also known as Red Dress Day.

This day honours the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex and Asexual Plus (MMIWG2S+) people in Canada by encouraging learning and building awareness to end violence against MMIWG2S+. Read more of this article posted on the University of Manitoba website.

Locally, drumming will take place on Gimli Beach (red dock) on Friday, May 5 at 6 p.m. to mark the National Day of Awareness and Action for MMIWG2S.

Thank you to Gwen Kostuik, Adult Day Program co-ordinator, for this submission!

On Wednesday, April 19, the clients of the Gimli Adult Day Program had a visit from a local

chainsaw carver Jim Zuk of Komarno. 

Jim kept everyone engaged with details on how to carve with a chainsaw and displayed many of the magnificent carvings he has done. 

He also discussed with the group about some of the other carvings he has done, which included a 10-foot Sasquatch that he has displayed as you come into his yard.

Everyone enjoyed the presentation.

This year, it's National Nursing Week from May 8 to 14 with the theme "Our Nurses. Our Future."

We'd love to hear from IERHA's nurses! What made you decide to become a nurse? And what do you like best about what you do?

Feel free to send your comments (and photos!) to ierhawave@ierha.ca. Be sure to include where you work.

Your comments and photos might be included in an upcoming edition of the Wave — and they might even be highlighted in submission to local community newspapers or on IERHA social media channels.

Thank you to administrative assistant Melissa Voth for sharing these lovely photos of artwork done by her dad David Voth at Selkirk Regional Health Centre.

David is retired and enjoys painting as a hobby. A while ago, Melissa asked him if he would paint for the hospital for different events or seasons. At first, he was hesitant because he usually draws on paper rather than windows. But Melissa convinced her dad that he'd do a great job — and that's certainly the case!

"The patients really enjoy them," Melissa said. "He said that when he is doing them, he often gets visitors telling him how nice they are and it brightens their day."

David has added his artistic touch to the building several times, and he's already thinking ahead of artwork for the fall.

Interlake-Eastern RHA employees have an obligation to report any suspected or known personal health information breaches immediately upon awareness of the incident.

When you have been exposed to personal health information that you have no requirement to see, such as personal health information coming to your facility via a channel different than usual/expected (i.e. over a fax where this information typically doesn’t appear), please immediately inform your supervisor/manager.

They will advise our regional privacy advisor of the occurrence as soon as possible. Your supervisor/manager will also speak to an individual responsible for the sending body’s information distribution.

Read more in our policy GA-7-P-058 PHIA - Reporting of Privacy Breaches.

Digital Shared Services is working towards a common user experience across all service delivery organizations. As part of that work, Windows 10 has been updated across the province. As a result, you may notice some differences when using your workstation. Key highlights include:  

• The Digital Shared Services primary supported web browser is Microsoft Edge. At this time we also provide Google Chrome as a secondary browser. Firefox is no longer provisioned except in cases where it is operationally necessary. If your website is not working correctly in Microsoft Edge, please contact the Shared Health Service Desk.
• The Provincial Shortcuts webpage is the new default when opening a browser tab. This site helps you quickly find the apps, tools and reference materials you use at work every day.
• Digital Shared Services would like to remind you to save your documents to your shared network drives. When systems are not logged in for an extended period of time, local data can be cleaned up by system maintenance activities. The best way to avoid data loss is to store essential files on network drives.
• For more information, see the updated Windows 10 reference guide

Provincial Shortcuts



The Provincial Shortcuts site was created as a way for staff to have quick, easy access to commonly used websites and apps.

The shortcuts page is automatically opened whenever you open a new tab in your Edge web browser. It can also be opened by selecting shortcuts from the start menu.

All Digital Shared Services managed shortcuts that were once found in your favourites, on the desktop or elsewhere have now been migrated to this shortcuts page. This standardizes the experience across all service delivery organizations.

If you feel a shortcut is missing, please contact Shared Health Communications by emailing webchanges@sharedhealthmb.ca to have it added.

April 26 was Administrative Professionals Day, an ideal opportunity to recognize administrative professionals for the important contributions they make to the health system every day, whether in direct care, support or corporate environments. 

Assistants and administrative roles are vital in health care, and their impact is felt in every aspect of the system.

Thank you for all that you do!

Help us share our great stories! Please continue to send your story ideas and photos to ierhawave@ierha.ca.

In addition to the Wednesday Wave newsletter, we would love to consider your submissions for IERHA's social media channels like Facebook and Twitter as well.

If you would prefer that your submission only be considered for the Wednesday Wave newsletter and not for social media, please let us know. 

Auditor general report on COVID-19 vaccine rollout

The Manitoba government has received a new report from the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) on Manitoba’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

The OAG examined two key criteria and determined the Manitoba government effectively and appropriately managed the COVID-19 vaccine rollout including the management of the vaccine inventory and the administration and prioritization of vaccines for Manitobans. The report reviewed 10 vaccination eligibility expansions and found all were reasonable prioritizations, and that vaccine wastage was kept to the minimum desired benchmark of five per cent.

Read more.

National Immunization Awareness Week

As part of National Immunization Awareness Week last week (April 24 to 30), the Manitoba government encouraged Manitobans to be up to date on routine immunizations that help protect against serious illnesses.

This year’s theme for was "Catch up with Confidence."

Provincial vaccination data show children born in 2019, 2020 and 2021 are more likely to be behind on routine immunizations, which protect against infections with serious complications such as whooping cough (pertussis), polio, meningitis, measles, mumps and chicken pox.

Read more.

20-bed expansion of Grace Hospital ICU

The Manitoba government is contributing $30 million to the Grace Hospital Foundation’s campaign to expand and improve the intensive care unit at the Grace Hospital by up to 20 ICU beds.

The hospital is a 251-bed facility that supports patients from all areas of Winnipeg and surrounding communities. 

The Manitoba government is investing $1.2 billion in multi-year capital investments in hospitals and other health infrastructure across the province, including

expansions and significant renovations currently underway at Selkirk Regional Health Centre, and Lakeshore General Hospital in Ashern.

Read more.

TODAY! WOW Wednesday Nursing Stories:

What Opportunities We Share in Career Development.

On May 3, from 12:15 to 12:55 p.m., the next WOW Wednesday event is the Infection Prevention & Control SHSS Nurse Panel.

Click here to see a poster. You can register here.

For more information about the series and to listen to recording of previous speakers, visit the Manitoba Healthcare Providers Network website

ASIST: Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training

May 9 and 10 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Selkirk Regional Health Centre

This two-day workshop is designed to help all caregivers become more willing, ready and able to help persons at risk and offers practical intervention skills that can be used with people of all ages. Suicide can be prevented with the help of prepared caregivers.

Participants must attend the two full days to receive certification of completion.

Click here to see a poster and learn how to register.

First Aid & CPR

2-Day Session: June 14 and 15 in Selkirk.

Staff must attend both days to be certified in First Aid & CPR. Registration for the session is on LMS.

The Heart & Stroke Standard First Aid course is a comprehensive 2-day program designed to teach you essential skills to effectively respond to medical emergencies in the workplace, home or other setting.

This course is designed to meet provincial workplace regulatory requirements and covers cardiopulmonary resuscitation, including responding to breathing, airway and circulation emergencies, as well as control of bleeding, shock, stabilizing fractures and dislocations, head and spine injuries, and more. This Heart & Stroke course is ideal for designated First Aiders, Maintenance and Reception staff.

Lunch is provided. Please contact Regional Education at 204-785-4760 or via email education@ierha.ca if you have food allergies.

De-Escalating Potentially Violent Situations 

• June 8 in Arborg                    
• June 21 in Selkirk

This workshop is designed to teach people to de-escalate potentially violent situations through assertiveness and interpersonal communication. The training will explore how anger and violence interplay, including opportunities for self-assessment of personal communication styles.

Participants will develop a clear understanding of how to assess the potential for violence and respond with a diverse set of interpersonal tools and strategies designed to defuse potentially violent situations.

Lunch is provided. Please contact Regional Education at 204-785-4760 or via email education@ierha.ca if you have any food allergies. Registration on LMS.

Nursing Grand Rounds Speaker Series

Click here to see a poster for the Catalysts for Care 2023 Nursing Grand Rounds Speaker Series.

Virtual events include:

• May 9 from noon to 1 p.m. — Dr. Lynda Balneaves will speak on the topic Medical and Non-Medical Cannabis: Panacea or Conundrum for the Nursing Profession?
• June 13 from noon to 1 p.m. — Laura Walton will speak on the topic Acute pain management from the patient perspective; how can this guide nursing?
• Sept. 10 from noon to 1 p.m. — TBA

Musculoskeletal injury prevention education classes

Musculoskeletal injury prevention education classes are mandatory for all acute, personal care home and home care staff. This training should take place as soon as possible after hire and then every three years.

Health-care workers are provided with the basic safe patient handling and movement training. Basic proficiency must be demonstrated at time of orientation.

Classes run from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. or 1 to 4 p.m.

MSIP Facility Education – Register on LMS.

• May 25 — Gimli

Home Care MSIP Education – Register with your resource co-ordinator.

• May 10 — Oakbank
• May 11 — Gimli
• June 5 — Oakbank
• June 14 — Gimli

Order cut-off is June 2 for delivery to corporate office on June 23.

Visit our online shop.

Exciting Savings Just for You!

As a member of IERHA, you are eligible for exclusive savings on TELUS products and services.

• Your Galaxy, the way you like it. Samsung S23 128GB for $20/month. On a 2-year term with Bring-It-Back. Plus, get your one-time $50 connection fee waived for all new activations.
• Already a member of our exclusive program? Upgrade today and enjoy 100GB for only $65/month. Only until May 9th, get 4x the value for just $5 extra on a 2-year TELUS Easy Payment plan. Regular offer: 25GB for $60/month.
• Until May 9, save an extra $240.Get 25GB for $45/month for 24 months. Offer includes a $240 bill credit exclusively for new activations on existing EPP accounts when you bring your own device. Plus, get the one-time $50 connection fee waived for all new activations.

Verify your employment and place your order at www.4lcommunications.com/ierha

Click here to see a poster featuring the May Telus promotions.

We're looking for your story ideas!

Send your submission of 250 words or less to ierhawave@ierha.ca by Friday and we'll work to get your story into the next issue.

We're taking a break from publishing editions in weeks following statutory holidays.

There will be no issue of the Wednesday Wave published on May 24.