New boss

The North West Local Health Integration Network’s board of directors didn’t have to look far to find their new CEO.

After an exhaustive cross-country search, on Thursday the organization responsible for controlling the purse strings of the region’s health-care providers named Laura Kokocinski to the post, knocking the interim label off the title she’s held since last February.

Kokocinski, who took over when former CEO Gwen Dubois-Wing stepped down, said she plans to take in the lay of the land for a few weeks before setting any major goals in place.

"I’ve had an opportunity as the interim CEO to look at the organization and identify some of the strengths and the weaknesses, and I need some time to be able to look at how we’re going to move that forward.

As the LHIN’s top boss, Kokocinski controls more than $500 million in funding for health service providers within the region, including 14 hospitals. It’s a task she doesn’t take lightly. All told it oversees 104 facilities.

"Certainly it’s a big job and I’m certainly prepared for the task," she said.

Finding ways to provide the highest quality and most responsive care, combined with delivery efficiency, service enhancement in under serviced areas and recourse allocation – all part of the integration agenda – appear to be the biggest hurdle to climb, Kokocinski said.

"(We need) everyone working together on a common vision and a common goal to address health care issues in the Northwest," she said.

Wait times and alternate levels of care are two issues she expects to tackle in the coming month, added Kokocinski, a lifelong Northwestern Ontario resident who in the past held a vice president position at Sioux Lookout’s Meon Ya Win Health Centre and was executive director of the Community Care Access Centre in the District of Thunder Bay.

Jan Beazley, chairwoman of the LHIN board of directors, said while the search for a new CEO was an extensive one, it was evident from the outset that Kokocinski had all the qualifications they were seeking.

"She’s got a very collaborative approach in the way that she works with our stakeholders in the community, around the region and provincially, and we’re extremely pleased with that," Beazley said.

Kokocinski assumes the permanent CEO role on Wednesday.