Here’s a photo of the Class of #saskihi11. Take a look at it - just like being back in elementary school. A rowdy group of boys off to the left clowning around, two girls in the middle deep in conversation, and there’s me, one of the tall kids right in the back. Dr Michael Rachlis from Toronto took this photo: he also organized the Canucks at IHI reception (Saskatchewan Health Quality Council sponsors this annual event). Over 300 Canadians attended the 23rd National Forum of the Institute of Healthcare Improvement. Our province was disproportionally represented with over 40 Saskatchewanians represented.
What I can’t share with you is a photo of the room while we were having our photo taken. Before we assembled in the corner the room was packed. Elbows were jostling, you had to really listen intently, and raise your voice to be heard. The room noticeably changed once the Saskatchewan crew settled down, lining up for our class photo. From our viewpoint the crowd became more sparse, elbow room opened up, and a bit of a hush fell over the room. I started to think that if we were all in a boat, the rest of the attendees would need to start moving to the other side of the room in order to stop us from tipping over.
Maybe we’ve reached our tipping point, maybe we’ve achieved a critical mass in Saskatchewan. In Orlando we acted as a community of physicians, administrators from RHAs, the Ministry, the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, all meeting together to learn, grow, and work on the key relationships that will support the work that we need to do. And that was just the group that made the trip to Florida. We know that across Saskatchewan leaders, physicians, other frontline staff all wanting to challenge the status quo, transforming our system to what we all know and are starting to believe that it can become.
So, Class of #saskihi11, lets continue the conversations, lets maintain and grow the relationships we've started to build, and lets push for the changes we know we need to make!
Can't wait to see you all at the class reunion - I bet you will all have some stories to share!
