In the early 2000s, government reforms in Ontario mandated that family physicians provide greater after-hours services for their patients. Family doctors were also incentivized to ensure patients obtained the majority of their primary care from their own family doctor. In some ways, the reforms were successful. Today, more primary care clinics are open evenings and …
Making doctors responsible for the patients in their geographical area. Offering primary care after-hours and on the weekends. And pushing away from solo practitioners and towards interprofessional care. Those proposals were all in the recently released “Patient Care Groups: A new model of population based primary health care for Ontario,” led by McMaster University’s David Price …
When she pictured her birth, Meghan Ward wanted a support person who would be with her from start to finish. Her first choice was a midwife, but there wasn’t a midwife in the Bow Valley, Alberta region where she lives. As a compromise, she found an obstetrician for her maternity care and started looking into …
Like most doctors, I can remember the first time one of my patients walked into my office with a stack of printed papers in her hands and a long list of questions—all derived from the newly emerging world of the Internet. Managing these types of interactions could feel daunting and even a little threatening but …
Two years ago, Colin’s first son was born at a hospital in a mid-size city in southern Ontario. After a long, difficult labour, his wife and baby were moved to a semi-private room at 5:30am. But Colin was not allowed to join them. “The nurses said I’d have to leave, and come back later in …
Health care has supposedly entered an era of patient involvement, where important medical decisions are shared between doctors and patients. But many believe that the reality in Canadian health care falls well short of this ideal. Complex medical decisions can prove difficult for patients, who are often faced with dizzying amounts of information about benefits and risks, …
“Patient-centred care” is on everyone’s lips these days. But, do we all agree what it is and when it has been achieved? And does patient centredness create new ethical dilemmas for patients and providers? The University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (JCB) and Healthy Debate are partnering to explore some of the practical and …
Ontario’s health care system can feel like a maze. The system has become so complex that even people who work in it every day often struggle to navigate it. So for members of the public – who often encounter the system at a time of crisis – it can be hopelessly confusing and frustrating. In …
As dedicated patient experts we welcome Ontario Premier Wynne’s Mandate Letter to Health Minister Eric Hoskins. We are encouraged that in an interview with the Globe and Mail Minister Hoskins committed himself to “improving the patient experience” and the Mandate letter leads with a priority to “Putting Patients at the Centre”. In our many patient roles, …
Trevor Cranney gets 60 hours of home care a month. Though he’s happy with the quality of care he’s getting, he doesn’t think it’s enough. “I suffer from ALS, and I’m unable to feed myself, brush my hair or do anything,” says the 42-year-old, who was recently given six to nine months to live. He would like …
Clinical knowledge has now become easier to obtain than ever. Open-access medical journals that waive subscription fees for readers, electronic medical record systems such as My e-Health in British Columbia that allow patients access to their own lab results, and full subscription to point-of-care tools such as UpToDate by patients have flattened the information hierarchy …
Society is in denial about death, especially in the context of medical care. People visit their doctors for cures. Few expect to be told there is no fix, let alone that their illness will lead to their deaths. Medical education reflects that same social discourse. Though I frequently provide care to dying patients, my medical education was …
A recent article in Healthy Debate highlighted the possibility of uncovering incidental findings as a significant challenge in genomic sequencing. An incidental finding is a genetic condition that causes a disease unrelated to the reason genetic testing was initially ordered. For example, imagine you have been recently diagnosed with a serious disease, such as colon …
Canada spends a significant proportion of its budget on health care, while achieving average population health outcomes compared with other OECD countries. It is difficult to achieve coordinated and comprehensive care, due in part to the strain of a dependence on acute care services, accounting for nearly 30% of total health care costs. An aging …
Rahel Yetbarek sits with her feet up, looking out onto the city and the large swath of treed land that surrounds the freeway below her. The nurse is taking in the view over her lunch break, from the 10th floor rooftop garden at Bridgepoint, a Toronto hospital. Nearby, a few patients do the same. The …