Jason Bilsky says the Yukon Hospital Corp. has learned from the coroner's inquest investigating Teresa Scheunert's death.

"There's points for improvement that we can take away and that we've learned from this,” the CEO said in an interview Monday.

"I take the point about gaps in documentation and taking a look at other medication management practices or best practices across the country,” he told the Star.

"Those are areas we're going to take a strong look at and make sure that as far as we know across the organization we're implementing as best we can.”

Scheunert, 47, died on June 21, 2012 after a two-week stay at the Watson Lake hospital, where she also worked as a nurse.

She was admitted for pain management on June 7 after she sustained a back injury during a CPR training course in April 2012.

The all-woman jury ruled Saturday that she accidentally died of mixed-drug toxicity, the same conclusion drawn by the forensic pathologist who conducted Scheunert's autopsy.

Bilsky said the corporation's staff will take their time sifting through the recommendations stemming from the inquest.

"First and foremost, our organization is about safe and excellent care within our hospital systems, so our team will be very thorough.

"The recommendations that the coroner made and the jury, they are significant they are important to us and particularly around some of the medication management policies, and as I said, there's several that are already in place,” he said.

"But we do have to assess and make sure that we're very thorough and implement things in the right way, and this will take some time.”

Bilsky added he appreciates everyone's involvement in the six-day inquest, especially the family, recognizing how challenging the process can be.

"I think it went well as far as bringing out all the facts and circumstances that surround the individual's death, and that's

the most important part of the inquest is just to ensure that as much gets known as possible for the purposes of learnings and fact finding and improvements,” he said.

Jan Stick, the NDP's Health and Social Services critic, helped the family publicize their concerns about their loved one's death in the fall of 2013. She also asked Health and Social Services Minister Doug Graham a series of questions in the legislature about the death.

Stick is similarly pleased with the inquest process.

"I thought the coroner's service ran a very open and transparent process; there were certainly lots of good ideas from the different experts that came about different ways to improve the medications practices in our hospitals,” she said in an interview Monday.

"I'm really pleased for the family of Teresa Scheunert that they felt vindicated by this, I think. Their questions were answered and there were some really great recommendations that came out of this.”

Stick highlighted in particular the jury recommendation to implement 19 recommendations from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices.

"I think their recommendations probably were the most critical,” said Stick.

One of the jury's recommendations directed the hospital corporation and the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board to improve co-ordination between their organizations to ensure no delays in receiving necessary medical diagnosis and treatment.

Becky Striegler, a spokesperson for the board, said the organization respects the recommendation from the inquest.

"We work with health care providers all the time; we are constantly working on ways to improve our working relationships with them to ensure that our clients get the best care possible,” she said.

"There are always ways to improve, so we will definitely be looking at how we can do that,” she said.

Stick said she'd like to see all the recommendations implemented and a public reporting process set up to keep Yukoners up to date on the progress.

While Bilsky didn't commit to publicly reporting on the hospital corporation's progress, he said anything would be considered.

Either way, Stick said she will be following up.

"I will be asking questions and I will be looking for updates,” she said.

This morning, Graham called the recommendations "interesting.”

He said none of them stood out as particularly onerous, and didn't expect any problems in implementing them.

The minister did note that some progress has been made on some of the recommendations following a patient safety review conducted after Scheunert's death.

A lengthy statement about the inquest from the deceased's family was published in Monday's Star.