Medical Laboratory Professionals week is not for another month (April 22-28), but the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science has released a new video highlighting the work of the profession.
The short video states that medical decisions are based on the results from the work medical laboratory professionals do, and without them, patient care would stop.
Watch the video in the window below.
Who is running our Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs)? With Commissioner Don Drummond’s calls to beef up the power of the regional health organizations, the make-up of the LHIN boards may become increasingly important.
For six years the McGuinty government has been making appointments to these boards. Most appointments are for three-year terms, meaning many LHINs are just now filling the third generation of their boards.
Who they are is very much a reflection of the government in power, many coming from the education and business sectors. Forty-eight claim some connection to the public and post-secondary education system, including teachers, professors, lecturers, principals, school board trustees and those who have served on the boards of colleges and universities. On the business side there almost the same number again of chartered accountants, consultants, IT professionals, human resources managers and bankers. About one in four business people on the LHIN boards are from the financial services industry.
Twenty-three LHIN board members state they are retired from their active careers, although many more fail to list a current position, suggesting they too may also be retired.
Posted in Local Health Integration Networks, Uncategorized
Tagged Angela Ferrante, Bob Lawlor, Carol Perry, Dale Small, Dave Cooke, Dennis Gushulak, Don Drummond, Dr. Sonia Sanhueza, Dr. Wilbert J. Keon, Duncan J. MacIntyre, Elaine Ashfield, Jackie Conant, John Fraser, John McDermid, Kim Piller, Linda Keen, Lorraine Gandolfo, Maneesh Mehta, Margaret Risk, Michael Hoare, Patrick O'Malley, Paul McDonald, Randy Kapashesit, Richard Bickstead, Ronald Haines, Ronald Lipsett, Sheila Maloney, Stephen E. Quinlan, Suzan Hall, W. Arthur Ronald, Wally Wiwchar, Wayne Gladstone, Wynn Turner
Have the Ontario Tories ditched some of their long-standing health care issues in the wake of the Drummond report?
On the one hand, Hudak likes Drummond’s idea for even larger Local Health Integration Networks, on the other hand, he remains silent on Drummond’s call to hold the line on new long-term care beds. During the election Hudak called for the elimination of the LHINs and pledged to create 5,000 new long-term care beds and renovate 35,000 more.
While PC Leader Tim Hudak has accused Premier Dalton McGuinty of cherry picking the report, he himself has been all over the map, one day insisting the Premier implement it, the next day carving out his own exceptions from the 362 recommendations.
“If the Premier takes a single one of them off the table he must specify an alternative approach,” Hudak said. And then Hudak himself began taking them off one by one, starting with his call to protect $340 million in revenue from slot machines shared with the horse racing industry.
Our friend David Musyj is mellowing.
The CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital, once a vocal advocate for wage freezes, now says either freeze all wages or none at all.
Musyj told the Windsor Star that it’s a morale breaker when the government freezes wages for just one group.
He says the impact of extending the freeze will be negative because further penalizing this group for “political gain” is grossly unfair.
We agree. As public sector workers, it is a morale breaker to see calls for more austerity when our wage increases are already well below the private sector.
Posted in Health System, Hospitals, Uncategorized
Tagged David Musyj, Government austerity, Wage Freezes, Windsor Regional Hospital
Canadian hospitals are scrambling to find sufficient quantities of certain generic drugs after the manufacturer recently slowed down production at its three Sandoz North American plants, including one in Boucherville, Quebec. The company is doing so to address issues raised by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Last November the U.S. FDA issued a warning letter to Novartis International stating the Canadian plant failed to follow appropriate written procedures designed to prevent microbiological contamination of drug products purporting to be sterile.
In the November 18, 2011 letter, the FDA stated specifically of the Boucherville plant “your failure to implement corrective actions and prevent future recurrence is indicative of an ineffective quality system.”
So where is Health Canada on this? Health Canada also inspected the plant AFTER the U.S. FDA and said they found no issues.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Drug shortage, Health Canada, Leona Aglukkaq, Novartis, Sandoz
It’s possible your health records are being used at this moment without your consent.
Health records are a valuable source of information for health research, population health monitoring, quality improvement and as evidence to inform management of our health system.
Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner notes, in a new report released March 2nd, that such information is often used and disclosed to researchers in a form in which patients are identifiable. This is because the original health provider lacks the resources or capacity to “de-identify” the records before making it available, especially when the documents are paper-based. Even when data from electronic health records (EHRs) are de-identified, some researchers have found it is sometimes possible to re-identify individuals from the anonymous data.
Ontario’s Personal Health Information Protection Act (2004) permits certain secondary uses of information contained in these records without consent from the individual.
You have to wonder about the Ontario Hospital Association and its publicly stated views of the Drummond Commission report.
Upon the release of the report, the OHA publicly welcomed it despite what the Dean of Queen’s University’s Faculty of Medicine refers to as the report’s “anti-hospital sentiment.”
“Overall, the OHA and its member hospitals welcome the perspective that Mr. Drummond brings to the broader public sector and intend to review the report and its recommendations carefully,” the OHA stated in a February 15 release.
That was the last OHA release, on Drummond or anything else.
What do hospitals really receive in funding increases?
This is often a difficult question to answer given funding flows in so many different ways.
One of them is pay-for-results (P4R) funding.
In year four of the scheme, the P4R program was intended to reward hospitals that succeeded in reducing emergency room wait times. Payments would be determined each quarter.
The results have been hardly stellar.
Posted in Uncategorized
While the Drummond Commission talks about the need for recruitment and retention of health professionals and “leaders”, much of the rest of the Commission’s labour relations recommendations may send health professionals off in search of greener pastures.
Drummond avoids the question as to what happens when Ontario brings down the austerity hammer while other provinces, such as Alberta, are rushing to enhance their health systems? Simple logic would suggest that doctors, nurses, lab techs, therapists and other professionals in high demand may all be learning the lyrics to Gordon Lightfoot’s “Alberta Bound” real soon.
Is this where McGuinty really wants to go after creating HealthForce Ontario to plan HR needs?
Drummond says wage freezes are ineffective because of the catch-up that follows, but recommends the government provide a zero budget increase for wage costs, forcing employers to find efficiencies to offset any settlements above zero.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Don Drummond, Drummond Commission, Ontario health care, professional flight
Stewart Kennedy, President of the Ontario Medical Association, has posted a statement in response to the Drummond report.
Not surprisingly, Ontario doctors welcome recommendations to expand the Family Health Teams, where the auditor recently revealed generous incentives for doctors to sign up. At present, there are more doctors who would like to practice in the FHTs than there are opportunities available.
However, the doctors do take umbrage to Drummond’s suggestion that they are the highest paid in Canada. It is true that Ontario’s overall physician costs are among the highest per capita, but that does not mean the individual doctors are the country’s top earners.
Posted in Uncategorized
OPSEU Diablogue 