Emotional last day on the job for retiring health region CEO

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After working for 35 years in the health-care system and the last three years as Prairie Mountain Health’s CEO, Brian Schoonbaert gets emotional when talks about what he’ll miss about the job, as he cleans out his desk in his downtown Brandon office on his last day before retirement.

While the COVID-19 pandemic was a one of the most challenging times for health care, he said, dealing with the shortage of health-care staff topped his concern.

“Staff shortages are definitely the worst, and it’s because you’ve put such an onus on the staff to work more,” Schoonbaert said Thursday.

“We moved some staff around not being where they typically would be, and that’s really tough to do — much more tough on them, already dealing with all the changes during COVID and post-COVID,” he said.

“You’re trying to balance doing as much as you can for the public and at the same time, knowing that you’re really extending your staff more than you should.”

Schoonbaert, 64, is a chartered professional accountant who started working in the health-care field in 1989 as a finance director for the health system in Baldur, Glenboro, Treherne and Wawanesa.

Before accepting the job as Prairie Mountain Health CEO in 2021, Schoonbaert was vice-president of finance and information services for the Brandon General Hospital and the Brandon Regional Health Authority, before both entities were renamed.

Looking back over the last three decades, Schoonbaert said he has seen health care change in many ways, including changes in society, technology, expectations of people and what health-care regions are able to do to keep up.

Additional pressure on the health-care system, he said, are mental health issues, substance abuse, the aging population and urbanization — people moving from rural areas to cities and towns.

The pandemic “definitely made things different,” he added. “People were really burned out, and it contributed to some leaving earlier than otherwise.”

Coming out of COVID, more employees are pursuing a work-life balance, Schoonbaert said, and less are wanting a full-time job, which is “very reasonable,” he added.

“Our younger folks are expecting more of a work life balance, and rightly so. But the staffing crisis would have happened regardless of all those factors,” he said.

“I don’t think you had to be a rocket scientist to see that this was coming over time. It was getting progressively worse and then COVID hit.”

In hindsight, said Schoonbaert, the health region and province should have been training more health-care providers years ago.

“It’s going to take a few years to get us back to where we need to be in terms of having all the staff and physicians.”

Financially, PMH ran a balanced budget in 2022-23, but Schoonbaert said that for 2023-24, the health region is expecting a deficit of close to $30 million, with three-quarters of that cost going to overtime and hiring agency — or private — nurses to fill staff shortages.

“I think it’s important for the public to understand that any shift that’s available first goes to our internal employees, but the internal employees can only do so much,” said Schoonbaert.

“We only go to agency because we have to, it’s not because we want to. And, it’s not like the hourly cost is that much more. It’s the travel and accommodations that makes it more expensive.

“I don’t want to put down agencies because they’re absolutely necessary for us to provide service, but believe me, we would rather not have to use any agency and just have our own staff.”

One thing Schoonbaert said he tried to do his entire career is to make sure rural areas are heard and understood when communicating with the provincial government.

Starting In 2017, for about two and a half years, he said, he contributed to the Transformation Management Office (TMO) in Winnipeg under then Progressive Conservative premier Brian Pallister. The TMO was created to improve the quality of health care across the province, with checks and balances to make sure it was fiscally sustainable.

“You have to make sure they understand it’s different out here. Even within our region, not everything is the same. There isn’t health equity in Prairie Mountain Health — some pockets are doing better, some pockets are doing worse,” Schoonbaert said.

“Governments have been good to respond, and I guess I’ve been proud to be part of that voice. And I don’t want to call myself a nag, but helping them understand what our issues are, what our plights are, et cetera. And that is really our job, as leadership, to do that for the citizens we serve.”

While he said he won’t miss the 7:30 a.m. meetings, Schoonbaert’s voice cracked with emotion as he talked about what he will miss about his job.

“It’s absolutely everyone — all 7,500, including the physicians. I just see how they work, how dedicated. And of course, we’re nothing without the staff, right? That’s who we are.

“And when you see what they’ve done, what they’ve gone through, yeah,” he said as his voice trailed off.

When asked if retirement will include woodworking, collecting classic cars or learning a new skill, he said he “probably thought of all those,” but is going out with no plans except to do more gardening with his wife, and spend time with his six children and 18 grandchildren.

The next — and fourth — CEO for PMH is Treena Slate, who moves up from regional lead in acute care services and chief nursing officer. She has more than 30 years’ experience in health care and 15 years in a leadership role, said Schoonbaert.

“Treena is a very bright person — she’s been in the system and in different places within the system, which is very important. And I know she’s going to do well,” he said.

“So I can walk out of here and it feels very good that there are very competent people here that can do everything. But for me, it will be very different come Monday.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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