Dark Clouds

It was a dismal time to be a health leader this past week with no shortage of controversy or outrage in Alberta.  For those of you not familiar with the story and/or living outside of my province here are a couple of links to get you up to speed:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2012/08/01/edmonton-alberta-health-services-merali.html

and

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2012/08/02/edmonton-weatherill-resigns-merali.html. 

In this case truth is stranger than fiction.  Who could conceive of such a storyline?  I've heard a lot of feedback so far from John Q Public about how could this happen?  This feeling is mixed in with real anger that severance packages for this latest round of departures from Alberta Health Services (AHS) could even be possible, along with vain hopes that these expenses could be repaid by the people implicated in the scandal.  Unfortunately, I see more bad than good coming out of this story, at least in the short term.  There is some grim satisfaction for members of the public watching the departure of key players from their roles with AHS.  However, I don't for a minute believe that there will be any recovery of the expenses paid out between 2005 and 2008.  I don't for a minute believe that this was an isolated set of circumstances relating to one senior executive in one former health authority.  I don't for a minute believe that there won't be another severance package due in the current circumstances - I doubt that AHS has any legal basis upon which they could deny such. 

I WANT TO believe that since the creation of AHS and under current leadership that this type of behaviour is not still going on.  AHS has made a commitment to be transparent about its current leadership expenses and the Office of the Auditor General is conducting further investigations as well.  Moreover, the Minister of Health has expressed an intent to not only find out how such expenses could be approved and paid out, but also indicated a commitment to determine how these issues could have been missed in a hiring process for an AHS senior executive.

I do want to give credit to the Minister of Health and AHS for taking immediate action when these issues came to light.  Timely and appropriate action was taken.  The right message has been sent. 

There is a lot of collateral damage coming out of this situation.  Health care leadership has been given another black eye.  Other health care leaders have been tainted with the same brush regardless of the fact that most of us don't go out for expensive dinners on the public dime, do not have luxury vehicles whose repairs we bill to our employer, nor have we received millions of dollars in payouts.  Most health leaders are hard-working, committed professionals who make every effort to try to improve and manage the health system for the benefit of the patients, residents and clients receiving care.  Under the best of circumstances in our health care system, however, administration and "back office" personnel are often the first and easiest targets for attack and cost-cutting initiatives.  Regrettably, events of the past week do much to feed this view and diminish any value the public might attach to leadership ethics, integrity and competence. 

There is much real work to do in improving health care.  Unfortunately, events of the past week will only detract from the focus needed to get things done.  In the days and weeks to come much time and effort will be spent on writing policies, revising procedures and putting other measures in place to try to prevent things like this from happening again.  While some form of punishment has been meted out to those implicated in this situation all health leaders bear the weight of this transgression.  Next week our health leaders will try to regain focus and move on.  It won't be easy.  Our credibility has taken another hit.

This is also a time of opportunity for health leaders.  We can use this event and others like them to strengthen our professional codes of conduct, enforce better behavioural norms on each other, and raise the bar for health leadership.  It's clear that the alternatives to self-management are far less attractive.

In the short term the actions of a few have made the work of those left behind immeasurably more difficult. 
  ______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.