Almost all of the administration staffing changes are done and the chief executive officer for Interior Health says the move should reduce some costs.

Dr. Robert Halpenny said Thursday the top three layers of administration have been dealt with, but there’s still one more to go before the reorganization is final. He expected to be done by the end of September.

“We reduced the number of senior executives. We’re looking at reducing total overall administrative costs. We’re looking at an increased ability to spread best practices from a clinical and business perspective through the health authority through this structure,” he said.

“I don’t have a number yet for savings,” he added, estimating the calculations could be done by October.

Halpenny said some of the administrators are also frontline workers.

“When we look at our overall administrative costs, ours have come down over the last number of years. But when we talk administration, people assume it means people like me. But it also means a whole array of service, like health records, where people get misled by the term administration,” he said.

“I think the number of administrative staff should level off.”

So far, he’s had positive feedback from staff on the changes.

The move also creates categories of health departments more in fitting with those of the Health Services Ministry, Halpenny said.

IHA had been given a heads up that the ministry was going to more of a primary care model, so by creating a vice-president of community integration, someone was responsible for primary care services, he said.

“We’ll never get rid of geography, but the process I took was to go to senior executive and ask what’s working, what’s not, and how can we improve?”

Halpenny said he’s big on improving standardization and best practices for all of Interior Health, in both clinical practices and cost savings.