Healthcare Systems Impact Patient Outcomes?

In the video below, Dr. Anderson explores how healthcare system issues can impact patient outcomes.

@drweedmom

There are many things contributing to the high mortality and morbidity of patients lately. Logistics is huge. When we have no ambulances and no ability to transfer, patients die. Patients end up, waiting due to minimal trucks. We use RCMP to transfer patients long distances. Patients wait longer for care due to wait times and transfers that are unnecessarily long. The stress and the system goes up because everybody is concerned about the patient and the stresses are causing even staff to treat each other differently. #emergency #healthcanada #trauma #traumahealing

♬ original sound – Dr. Jennifer Anderson MD



The Real Cause?

“If the UCP were serious about getting value for health-care expenditures or guarding against corruption, it would emulate Quebec’s approach and protect its public health-care system while banning profiteers.”

If you have not yet read Jeremy Appel’s article, you may wish to do so.

Gamer role in hospital?

Photo by mzacha on Freeimages.com

One of the things people experience when they are a patient in a hospital is boredom. This is especially true for children. Check out this video and see how a hospital in Scotland has addressed this issue. Will other hospitals do the same?

Safe consumption site – Stay or go?

There is much debate about whether safe consumption sites should exist and if so where. The site at in Calgary at Sheldon Chumier Center is the center of one of these debates. Here is an article by the CBC that looks at this very important issue.

A must-read story from Global News Toronto. 

If you have not yet heard about Joshua Morven and Sarah Bright and the very special day they had thanks to members of the Vancouver General Hospital, you can read about it here.  Be warned, you may want to have some Kleenex nearby.

Amplifying the Patient’s Voice

Martha’s Rule is a new policy that aims to give patients and the patient’s families greater voice in the the care their loved one is receiving without the fear of retribution or the like. Had this rule existed in 2021, perhaps Martha’s outcome would have been very different.

As Martha’s mother said, “‘I desperately wish that I’d felt able, with no fear of being the target of ill-temper or condescension, to ask for a second opinion from outside the liver team when I became concerned about Martha’s deterioration.’”

Click here to read about Martha’s Rule.

How to Fix Healthcare?

Healthcare is a concern for many people. In this X thread, Dr. Meddings identifies what is needed to improve healthcare in Alberta. According to him, “[t]here is nothing magical about how to fix our healthcare system. There is no ‘private’ in here and it is all currently doable given political will.”

Hallway Medicine- Who is chosen?

“I invite the premier, health minster, and the people directly responsible for this decision to come for a sleepover in the hallway of one of our hospitals for a few days. Once you have experienced the indignity of eating, sleeping, and toileting in a thin gown in front of a ward full of people, visitors, doctors, custodial staff and other allied health-care workers, I might be willing to accept that this policy was made in an informed way.”

The above is from a powerful opinion piece written by Manpreet (Mona) Gill. Click here to read the full article.

Have your say

There is discussion happening surrounding mask mandates in hospitals and other care facilities. Do you think such mandates should be maintained?