"How to make a bad mistake worse" brought to you by AHS

Not that the last week in Alberta didn't already give us a lesson on how to mismanage fear, but now Alberta Health Services has just given us a wonderful example of how to make a bad mistake worse.

First, the H1N1 vaccine roll-out in Alberta was poorly thought through. The plan was "if you want the shot, line up and get it." So that's what people did. The plan didn't consider "we need to get the at-risk people first. It didn't consider the seemingly obvious fact that at risk people - children, pregnant women, and people with underlying respiratory conditions - are probably not the best populations to have standing and waiting in lines for a couple hours (or more), especially outside in Alberta in late October.

Thus, the action plan for getting the shot to the people was poorly administered causing great frustration for all, and those who were most at risk were not given any preferential treatment to get the shot. However, my beloved Calgary Flames apparently did get "preferential treatment." I was privileged to watch the Flames versus Detroit on Saturday, Oct 31. To know now that they received the H1N1 shot on Friday makes sense... their arms must have been sore from the shot because their hockey shots on goal were pretty flimsy most of the night! (Okay and Detroit's defensive system really is quite good.)

But now, AHS decides to "fire the senior staff member who approved giving the Flames players and their families the flu shot." Perhaps it was an error in judgment and it does make AHS look bad to give a group of professional athletes the ability to "jump the line." But really... is this what made AHS look bad? Is this their key mistake/flaw?

There's plenty of other organizational, communication and administrative problems for AHS to deal with... firing the guy who arranged for the Flames and their families to get the shot is not the real issue. The guy made a mistake. He should have thought through the implications of how his decision made the Flames and AHS look. Ask him to apologize for his mistake and when Mr Duckett wants to cut health care administrator's bonuses, then here is one guy who doesn't get one next year. But to single out this administrator for termination amidst all the others who seem to be bumbling about?