April 18, 2012
“Canada’s healthcare system faces mounting pressure as the population ages and the prevalence of chronic conditions continues to rise. The traditional focus on providing complex and chronic disease care within the acute setting is contributing to already existing pressures on wait times, alternate level of care days, and patient access and flow. In response to these challenges, and the recognition that the acute setting may not be optimal for providing patient-focused chronic care, many provincial health ministries and healthcare organizations are launching initiatives to better manage complex chronic conditions in the community and improve the patient care experience.
Recognizing the need to address this issue, the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) to conduct a National Health Leadership Survey on Ambulatory and Community Care to:
- Continue to help establish a channel for engagement with Health Leaders;
- Identify leaders and leading practices in ambulatory and community care;
- Identify integrated care interventions to improve care for patients with complex needs; and
- Gather insights for use in CHSRF’s programs and events.
In total, 53 health leaders, including general internal medicine practitioners, general practitioners and administrators representing all of the provinces and the combined territories responded and participated in the study. Numerous themes emanated throughout the health leader interviews, with consistency generally found across regions and roles (e.g., general internal medicine, general practitioner, executive).”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Canada, Emergency service, Forecasting | No Comments
February 15, 2012
“Ontarians want excellent public services from their government. The Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services understands and supports this desire. We see no reason why Ontario cannot have the best public services in the world — with the proviso that they must come at a cost Ontarians can afford. With such a goal, we face three overarching tasks. First, we must understand Ontario’s economic challenges and address them directly. Second, we must firmly establish a balanced fiscal position that can be sustained over the long term. And third, we must sharpen the efficiency of literally everything the government does so Ontarians get the greatest value for money from the taxes they pay. This report addresses these issues and offers a road map to a day when Ontarians can count on public services that are both excellent and affordable — the public services Ontarians want and deserve.”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Canada, Forecasting, Funding | No Comments
February 2, 2012
“December 15, 2011—Between 2009 and 2010, growth in the supply of physicians was more than double that of the Canadian population, according to a new report released today by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). While the physician population increased by 2.3%, a somewhat lower increase than the previous year, the Canadian population as a whole grew only 1.1%. In 2010, there were approximately 69,700 active physicians working in Canada—the greatest number of active physicians there has ever been in this country.
The 2010 edition of CIHI’s annual report Supply, Distribution and Migration of Canadian Physicians shows that over the past five years, the growth in the number of physicians in Canada has consistently outpaced population growth. In 1980, there were 151 active physicians per 100,000 Canadians; in 2006, there were 190; and in 2010, there were 203. Over the past five years, the number of physicians and the physician-to-population ratio increased in all provinces and territories except Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
Although continued investments across Canada to train and retain more doctors means we now have more physicians than ever, it’s important to remember that numbers alone do not tell the whole story,” says Michael Hunt, CIHI’s Director of Pharmaceuticals and Health Workforce Information Services. ‘The demand for physician services depends on a number of factors, including the health care needs of Canadians, the way care is organized, the number of hours doctors are working and the scope of practice of other health professionals.’”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Canada, Forecasting, Health human resources | 2 Comments
January 23, 2012
“This study of health care cost drivers is a companion to CIHI’s annual report on
national health expenditure trends. With the expiry of the 2004 health accord
within the next three years, Canadians need a better understanding of the
underlying drivers of health care costs. This report presents a summary of CIHI’s
analysis of data and sheds light on the underlying factors that explain recent
trends in public-sector health spending.
It is first useful to put recent health spending growth into perspective by looking
at trends over a longer period of time. It should be noted that there have been
variations in the pace of health spending growth over the last 35 years. The growth
of public-sector health spending since 1975 can be divided into three phases: a
growth phase from 1976 to 1991; a short period of retrenchment and disinvestment
from 1992 to 1996, when governments dealt with fiscal deficits; and a growth
phase that averaged 3.5% per year, after adjusting for inflation, from 1997 until
2008, during which time health care became a top priority for Canadians. During
this latter period, major investments were made in health care, including spending
on physicians, drugs, hospitals and advanced diagnostics.
This study examines the growth in spending from 1998 to 2008 that is
attributable to underlying health care cost drivers, principally demographics
(population growth and aging), price inflation, technology and utilization.”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Canada, Forecasting, Health care costs, Health planning | No Comments
December 2, 2011
“Change Foundation CEO Cathy Fooks says integrated healthcare is the key to better patient experiences, improved access to quality, safe services, and a stronger, sustainable healthcare system. But she says integrated healthcare is not yet possible in Ontario given the arrangements currently in place, adding that we need to create the winning conditions to yield a patient-centred system that provides value for our healthcare investments.
“The province is working on several fronts to improve healthcare quality, better serve patients and use resources more strategically. But we’re missing a game-changing shift,” says Fooks. “As long as the levers of healthcare change are grinding against each other, real progress will be slow. We need to embrace team-based care. We need to strengthen regional planning bodies by giving them the scope, support, and structure to do their job; and we need to ensure professional interests don’t trump big-picture decision-making and the voice of patients and caregivers.”
Winning Conditions recommends 24 interconnected actions to improve care, governance, funding, performance, and information flow, outlining where we stand now, and where we need to go to improve the patient and caregiver experience.
Winning Conditions is The Change Foundation’s best advice on how Ontario can move closer to an integrated health system and improve the experience of patients and their caregivers. It’s based on work conducted and commissioned by the Foundation and published research. It draws on what we’ve learned from other jurisdictions, and is informed by discussions with government, policy experts, regional planners, and most importantly, the people who use Ontario’s healthcare system.”
Click here to read the full article
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Forecasting, Process improvement, Quality improvement | No Comments
November 24, 2011
“Aging is an important women’s health issue. Canada’s aging population is presenting unique challenges to the health system on multiple fronts. Women comprise the majority of the older population and have different patterns of illness and health needs than men. In 2005, 13% of the Canadian population was aged 65 or older, and this number is projected to increase to more than 25% by 2056. Older adults have a high burden of chronic disease and multiple chronic conditions requiring a patient-centred (rather than a disease-specific) approach to their care. Both social and biological factors result in important differences in the health and the health care needs of older women and men. Older women are more likely to have a greater burden of illness including multiple chronic conditions, more functional limitations, and a higher prevalence of disability then older men. Therefore, the mismatch between the way health and supportive care services are organized and the needs of older adults disproportionately impacts women.”
Click here to read the full article
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Canada, Forecasting, Health services for the aged, Patient-centered care | No Comments
April 1, 2011
“Three concurrent developments in the 1970s has led to Manitoba becoming a leader in the field of research into aging. First, the provincial government launched the Continuing Care Program, to provide home care and nursing home placement if needed – the first such program in Canada. Second, the province hired the late Dr. Betty Havens to initiate a study on the needs of Manitoba elders, which became known as the Longitudinal Study on Aging (LOS). Third, Drs. Noralou Roos, Betty Havens, the late Evelyn Shapiro and others decided to link the LOS data with healthcare use data housed at the University of Manitoba Medical School, to conduct studies that have developed critical knowledge on the use, delivery and quality of care delivered to its elders. Many of the questions addressed were developed in consultation with provincial stakeholders, providing key evidence to support planning decisions (Doupe et al. 2006; Menec et al 2002; Roos et al. 2001). This team-based approach has also fostered strong partnerships that still exist today and, in some respects, are unique in Canada.”
Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Canada, Forecasting, Health services for the aged | No Comments
March 30, 2011
“Healthy People has evolved during the three decades in which it has existed. In 1990, Healthy People 2000 had two overarching goals, 15 topic areas, and 226 objectives. Today Healthy People 2020 has four overarching goals, 42 topics areas (of which 39 contain objectives), and nearly 600 objectives. The mission of Healthy People 2020 is to:
- Identify nationwide health improvement priorities;
- Increase public awareness and understanding of determinants of health, disease,
disability, and opportunities for progress;
- Provide measureable objectives and goals applicable at national, state, and local levels;
- Engage multiple sectors to take actions to strengthen policies and improve practices that
are driven by the best available evidence and knowledge;
- and Identify critical research evaluation and data collection needs.
The following are the overarching goals of Healthy People 2020:
- Attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable disease.
- Achieve health equity; eliminate disparities.
- Create social and physical environments that promote good health.
- Promote quality of life, healthy development, and healthy behaviors across life stages.”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Access to care, Forecasting, Indicators, Patient-centered care | No Comments
March 22, 2011
“In Chapter 1 we understand why health information should be made available directly to patients and why electronic information is the best means of information sharing. A few important aspects related to these issues are laid down: trustworthiness and comprehensibility. Information should be available to patients in all languages so that when faced with such information, all patients can have the opportunity to understand it with the maximum level of responsibility and data security.
Moreover, another feature of modern technologies is technical interoperability, which should be seen as a future ‘must do’ so that information becomes not only mobile but accessible. In light of this, e-health should bring with it the simplification of administrative procedures and should be a source of education and evaluation for the medical profession, facilitating the patient-doctor relationship.
Chapter 2 tries to answer just that, explaining why we are so sure that e-health is a tool that empowers citizens. It will deliver key services such as rapid access to medical records, making it possible that a chronic disease could even be remotely monitored or that 5 million yearly prescription errors could be avoided. Thus, it improves the management of healthcare and what is essential to remember is that we know it works. A similar program has already been implemented in Sweden and people there could tangibly feel that it delivered on its promises. In addition, Malta, Germany, Slovenia and Slovakia have developed ID cards where health and illness information is accessibly stored.
Chapter 3 then explains two aspects about ICT technologies: that projects such as the Virtual Physiological Human were a success and that in spite of being an advanced technological tool e-health is still in its infancy and has even greater potential for innovation. Hence, this chapter explains in specific terms what e-health does and most importantly what it could do in practice.
Last but not least, Chapter 4 puts the topic into perspective, telling of present and future challenges that affect the medical profession and overall, the EU and its patients. The two articles both recognize that under the pressure of an ageing population phenomenon, healthcare services need the digitisation that could be brought by e-health investments. In this sense, the main points voiced refer to training professionals in the best way possible, facilitating for them both hardware and software material.”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Benchmarking, e-health, Efficiency, Forecasting, Health technology, Information technology, Medical records, Patient-centered care, Technology | No Comments
January 31, 2011
Health Care in Canada is CIHI’s annual flagship report on the health care system and the health of Canadians. Since 2000, it has been a resource that tables fundamental issues facing the health care system. Addressing questions surrounding patient safety, wait times, health care spending and analyses on how the system has adapted over time to meet changing needs has made Health Care in Canada a key source for the public and policy-makers alike.
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Benchmarking, Canada, Forecasting, Funding, Indicators, Public health, Statistics & numerical data | 1 Comment
