Regional health authorities (RHAs) are Manitoba's independent governing bodies for

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

delivery and

regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...

. RHAs are overseen by their respective

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, who have responsibility for the mandate, resources, and performance of the health authority, responding directly to the provincial Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living. RHAs work under ''The Regional Health Authorities Act''. The five RHAs that exist today were created as an amalgamation of eleven Health Authorities that were merged in 2012: *

Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority , type = Health authority , seal = , logo = , formed = 2012 , jurisdiction = Interlake and Eastman regions, Manitoba , headquarters = 233A Main St, Selkirk, MB , employees = 3,200 (Oct 2020) , budget = $ CAD (2020) , chief1_name = Gle ...

* Northern Health Region *

Prairie Mountain Health The Prairie Mountain Health (PMH; ; formerly Western Regional Health Authority) is the governing body responsible for healthcare delivery and regulation for the eponymous health region in southwest Manitoba. PMH is one of 5 regional health aut ...

* Southern Health-Santé Sud *

Winnipeg Regional Health Authority The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA; french: Office régional de la santé de Winnipeg, ORSW) is the governing body for healthcare regulation for the City of Winnipeg, the northern community of Churchill, and the Rural Municipalities of E ...

In addition to the five regional health authorities, the three other independent health delivery organizations of

Manitoba Health Manitoba Health (formerly Health, and Seniors Care, MHSC; also known as Manitoba Health) is the department of the Government of Manitoba that is responsible for leading the development of policy and publicly-administered health system planning i ...

are Diagnostic Services Manitoba (DSM), CancerCare Manitoba (CCMB), and Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM). Until 2016, RHAs operated under the

umbrella An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally used ...

of the Regional Health Authorities of Manitoba, Inc. (RHAM), a

non-profit corporation A nonprofit corporation is any legal entity which has been Incorporation (business), incorporated under the law of its jurisdiction for purposes other than making profits for its owners or shareholders. Depending on the laws of the jurisdiction, a ...

intended to facilitate interregional healthcare delivery in the province, pursuing joint activities of mutual benefit to the provincial RHAs. In 2019, Health Minister

Cameron Friesen Cameron Scott Friesen, MLA is a Canadian politician and member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for Morden-Winkler, currently serving as the Manitoba Minister of Finance. A member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba, he wa ...

announced amendments to the ''Regional Health Authorities Act'', which added Shared Health as a provincial health authority to take on similar responsibilities to the previous RHAM over province-wide healthcare coordination.

History

Regional health authorities were created in 1997 to "better manage health care services" in Manitoba. In 1998, Regional Health Authorities of Manitoba, Inc. (RHAM) was established under the Corporations Act as a

created after the province's Regional Health Authorities discovered a need for a legal

umbrella organization An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and ofte ...

under which they could coordinate certain activities on a provincial basis. In 2012, the eleven Health Authorities were merged by the Government of Manitoba to create the five larger RHAs that exist today. In 2016, the RHAM Board of Directors and Membership voted in favour of a motion to dissolve RHAM and start distributing assets and discharging liabilities, effective 1 April 2017. In 2019, under the Government of Premier

Brian Pallister Brian William Pallister (born July 6, 1954) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Manitoba from 2016 until 2021. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba from 2012 to 2021. He was previously a cab ...

, Health Minister

announced amendments to the Regional Health Authorities Act. Among these amendments, the provincial government planned to make Shared Health a new provincial health authority, and to change the legislation's name to the Health System Governance and Accountability Act. The amendments would also designate CancerCare Manitoba as the province's authority on cancer with legislative authority.

Governance and organizations

Board of directors

Each Regional Health Authority is overseen by a

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

, which has responsibility for its mandate, resources, and performance, responding directly to the provincial Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living. (The Minister also appoints the members.) Members of these boards are required to represent their region as a whole, rather than particular communities or interests. The boards are responsible for ensuring that their health authority complies with relevant legislation, regulations, provincial policies, and Ministerial directives. Boards have a strategic role in setting direction for the health authority and a fiduciary role in policy formulation, decision-making, and oversight. The

has 15 board members, while the rest of the health authorities—which are in the rural and northern regions of Manitoba—have 12 each. Board members were last appointed on 29 March 2020, by Health, Seniors and Active Living Minister

Regions

While there were initially eleven Health Authorities, the Government of Manitoba merged these RHAs in 2012 to create the five larger RHAs that exist today. * ''Note: While the town of Churchill is located in northern Manitoba, it is nonetheless administered by the WRHA.''

Shared Health

Shared Health () is a centralized administrative organization that coordinates the delivery of healthcare services across the province of Manitoba—with initiatives that include planning for

Health human resources Health human resources (HHR) – also known as human resources for health (HRH) or health workforce – is defined as "all people engaged in actions whose primary intent is to enhance positive health outcomes", according to World Health Organizati ...

, investing in

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, and construction planning, among others. Developing clinical and preventive services, Shared Health works collaboratively with the Regional Health Authorities, as well as service-delivery organizations and communities. The organization was established as a legal entity in 2018 to provide "centralized clinical and business services for the regional health authorities." It has been a central focus of reform of the healthcare system under the government of Premier

. In 2019, Health Minister

announced amendments to the ''Regional Health Authorities Act'' that would give Shared Health legislative power and make it a new provincial health authority. Through this legislation, Shared Health would adopt: the operations of the Health Sciences Centre and certain mental health programs, which are currently overseen by the

; and Selkirk Mental Health Centre and the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, which are facilitated by

. As of February 2021, executives of Shared Health include: Brock Wright,

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

; Lanette Siragusa,

Chief Nursing Officer Nursing management consists of the performance of the leadership functions of governance and decision-making within organizations employing nurses. It includes processes common to all management like planning, organizing, staffing, directing and ...

; and Perry Poulsen,

Digital Health Digital health is a discipline that includes digital care programs, technologies with health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and to make medicine more personalized and precise. It uses informatio ...

and Chief Information Officer.

References

{{reflist

External links

Regional health authorities in Manitoba

Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority

Northern Health Region

Prairie Mountain Health

Southern Health-Santé Sud

Winnipeg Regional Health Authority

Statistics Canada. 2018. *