Alberta is introducing Strategic Clinical Networks in areas such as mental health and addictions, cancer care, diabetes, obesity and nutrition. These networks are meant to lead clinical practices province-wide, and improve the quality of care, outcomes and costs of health care services. This is an ambitious undertaking which may contain some lessons for Ontario. Alberta’s …
I became sold on the value of primary care in a way that I wouldn’t have had I not gone through this experience with my sick child… My mindset for years: My pediatrician minimizes my concerns The few times that I had raised concerns with my childrens’ pediatrician, I had been advised that it is …
A recent report describes how Canada’s healthcare system performs compared to 13 other countries. Canada ranked at the bottom in access to care and use of electronic health records, and in the middle regarding costs and health outcomes. Thirty-eight percent of Canadians felt the system works well, 51% thought it needs fundamental change, and 10% believed …
When attending healthcare events with politicians and occasionally with senior healthcare leaders an audience member will ask “do you think X government change or Y hospital practice works”? Then immediately follows up with “what you do we should do instead?” This is the exact moment I start to get nervous. Asking a single individual to …
The challenges facing the health care system are massive and despite some occasional messages to the contrary, the overwhelming opinion is that the health care system is not sustainable. Despite the mounting chorus, internal and external, telling us that the system isn’t sustainable, surprisingly little has been done. We have been nibbling around the edges …
Each year several thousand Canadians die from influenza. Vaccinating health care workers against flu reduces transmission and would protect patients who are most vulnerable. However, only about 40% of hospital staff in Ontario were vaccinated last winter. Is it time for Ontario to make the flu vaccine mandatory for health care workers? Explaining the influenza …
Hospital accreditation is a process that assesses a hospital’s performance against a set of standards. This process is done differently across provinces and countries. In Canada, most hospitals go through an accreditation process conducted by Accreditation Canada. The accreditation process could be more transparent and provide more information to the public about the quality of …
In August 2011, a supervisor was appointed at the Niagara Health System to “restore public confidence” in the hospital. The Ontario Public Hospitals Act allows the government to appoint a supervisor to take over the administration of a hospital if it is considered in the public interest to do so. While appointing a supervisor happens …
Over the last fifty years, doctors have been making fewer and fewer house calls. There is little doubt that patients value physician house calls, particularly from a doctor with whom they have an ongoing relationship. Lack of appropriate training and mentors, financial disincentives, and the changing culture of family medicine are all barriers to increasing …
An integrated, coordinated system of trauma care has been shown to reduce injury-related deaths by improving timely access to specialized care There is, however, wide variation in how long it takes to get a severely injured patient to a trauma centre in Ontario. Trauma systems improve by systematically assessing performance and outcomes. Ontario does not …
Each year one in five Ontarians visits one of the province’s 163 emergency departments. A recent study has shown that those who present to emergency departments when waiting times are longer have worse outcomes. Since 2008, Ontario has spent a lot of money and effort to reduce waiting times and improve the quality of care …
About one in six beds in Ontario’s hospitals are occupied by patients who no longer need hospital care. These beds are called Alternate Level of Care (ALC) beds. Because ALC beds are not available for sick patients in the emergency department, ALC beds are an important cause of emergency department overcrowding. The term ‘gridlock’, used …
Ontario’s hospitals are required to publicly report how often staff wash their hands. There is large variation in hand washing rates between hospitals. This variation more likely reflects how hospitals measure hand washing, rather than the frequency of hand washing itself. Ontario’s hospitals are required to publicly release information about how often staff wash their …