SERVICE DELIVERY ORGANIZATION REALIGNMENT

A Message from Karen Herd, Deputy Minister of Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living
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Each and every day, thousands of dedicated health care professionals provide high quality, patient-focused
care to Manitobans or provide crucial key business support to keep our operations flowing. Manitoba’s
health system includes Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living, regional health authorities, Shared
Health, CancerCare Manitoba, Addictions Foundation of Manitoba and many grant-funded and service
purchase agreement agencies, and various clinical programs and services located at sites and facilities
across the province. Our system works well for most people, most of the time. However, approaches to
planning and priority areas of focus have varied across individual regions or organizations leading to
ongoing challenges achieving consistency and coordination.

While continuous improvement has long been a focus within every health organization, these differences
impact how Manitobans access and experience the health system - often with varied results depending on
where they live. Manitoba’s Health System Transformation offers solutions that will improve our health
system. By addressing access, quality, equity and patient experience, we are creating a provincial health
system able to respond to the needs of all Manitobans in a consistent way.

While pandemic response continues, changes that will simplify and improve the health system are
underway. This work is referred to as Service Delivery Organization (SDO) Realignment and its scope
includes the five regional health authorities, CancerCare Manitoba and Shared Health.

SDO Realignment involves reductions to our organizations’ management structures and shifts in leadership
and oversight that will position our health system to provide maximum resources for direct health care
services needed – and used – by Manitobans while operating in a well-managed and sustainable way.

Enhanced focus on planning and integration, quality and patient safety as well as dedicated support for
implementation of clinical changes will allow all SDOs to adopt leading practices. In the new design,
service delivery will be clearly focused in clearly defined portfolio areas with established connections
between them to support Manitobans throughout the continuum of care.

While organizational changes like these can challenge the status quo and may be disruptive, we need to
keep focus on the longer-term benefits they will realize. Once complete you will see enhanced focus in
priority areas to meet the needs of the population, improved overall experience for patients and improved
access, quality and accessibility of health services for all Manitobans.

These changes are not expected to result in material changes to the day-to-day work of non-management
front-line staff, but getting to this integrated state will involve extensive collaboration and there will be
changes that are evident across our system. Throughout these transitions, whether you work on the front-
lines of health service delivery or in a management or administrative position, I will continue to emphasize
that you play an important role in our health system and your contributions are both recognized and
appreciated.

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Thank you, on behalf of the entire health system, for your ongoing commitment to the Manitobans we serve
and to each other. Working in collaboration, we can leverage the depth of expertise that exists across the
diverse network of leaders, care professionals, communities and patients to deliver our shared goal of
better care for all Manitobans.

Frequently Asked Questions: SDO Realignment

The information below describes the system-wide changes and the benefits they will bring to the delivery of
health care in Manitoba.

Your Chief Executive Officer will provide more detailed information about what these changes mean for
health care workers in your SDO. Leaders from your organization are currently in the process of meeting
with individuals whose positions may be affected by these changes in some way. Opportunities to ask
questions and access more information will also be available through your SDO leadership.
What is changing?

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The roles and responsibilities of the organizations that make up our health system are being refined and
clarified to support our work as an integrated provincial system.

• *SDOs include all five of Manitoba’s regional health authorities (RHAs), Shared Health as the
provincial health authority, and CancerCare Manitoba as the cancer authority. Each SDO will
continue to exist as a separate legal entity but will be integrated into the health system governance
structure. All SDOs are accountable to the Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living and his
Department, and are subject to the same accountability framework.

What is SDO Realignment?

Similar organizational structures and roles across service delivery organizations will support improved
coordination and consistency in the care available to all Manitobans. The implementation of changes to
SDO organizational structures will be completed in multiple phases from September 2020 to early 2021.
SDO realignment is the process of changing how organizations are structured and operate to enable an
enhanced local focus on the delivery of health services while planning and some support services are
centralized within Shared Health to ensure consistency across the province.
The executive of SDOs across Manitoba have designed an updated, foundational leadership structure to
align their target state organizations. Each SDO adopted the basic principles of the pictured diagram below
but may have slight variations to meet their regional and structural needs. By adopting a similar
structure, with unique qualities, SDOs will fulfil their mandate to deliver standardized, high-quality care and
services to the communities and clients they each serve, while integrating their operations efficiently across
a single provincial health system. Your CEO will provide you with the organizational chart for your specific
SDO.

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What does this mean for my SDO?

In addition to providing excellent patient care, SDOs will participate in the preparation, updating and
implementation of Manitoba’s Clinical and Preventive Services Plan. SDO strategic and operational plans
will also align to ensure Manitobans have access to consistent, reliable care across the province.

To fulfill these new roles effectively, SDOs require similar leadership structures from one organization to
another. SDOs have been involved in this process, working together to design similar leadership
structures, including the organizational design and the roles, responsibilities, titles, classifications and
functions of leaders.

The leadership of each SDO is now beginning to apply these common changes to their own organizations.

What does this mean for me?

For most health care workers, there will be no change to your day-to-day work. Non-management, front-
line staff who provide direct patient care and support are not expected to experience significant change.

For those who are affected in management and/or leadership positions, job postings and competitions
associated with these changes will be coordinated across the health system to ensure fairness for
interested staff.

Where can I find more information?

Please visit https://home.sharedhealthmb.ca/transformation-updates/