Another increase to the cost of Healthcare

Just in case anyone hasn't clued into why our system is broken, HERE'S WHY... OPSEU workers in the health sector just won 2.5% wage increases for 2009 and 2010 under arbitration. At a time when thousands of people are losing their jobs, or are getting wage reductions, union folks are still demanding wage INCREASES... when they're already some of the highest paid workers around.

Of course, as we learned from the Ontario Economic update the other week, the McGuinty government doesn't have the money to help pay for the increases that your local hospital will now have to wedge into their budgets. Nor, of course, do they have the guts to stand up to the unions and do anything about it.

Ontario’s Hospitals Criticize Wage Award
Ontario Hospital Association
November 4, 2009

Toronto – Today, an Arbitration Board led by Owen Gray released its award in the matter between 44 Ontario hospitals and the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union (OPSEU).

The Gray Board of Arbitration awarded OPSEU 2.5% wage increases in 2009 and 2010, as well as certain enhancements to benefits. The wage increases awarded are significantly higher than recent settlements in the public sector, including the Ontario Public Service Settlement with OPSEU, the City of Toronto settlement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and hospital settlements with CUPE and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW).

The award will increase the operating costs of the affected hospitals while not contributing to improved patient care.

Key Quote:

“The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) is extremely disappointed that Arbitrator Gray chose to ignore the current and expected impact of the economic downturn on public sector finances generally, and on hospital funding specifically. This award is inconsistent with previous, freely-negotiated collective agreements and is, in the OHA’s view, irresponsible. Hospitals could be forced to make further difficult decisions related to staffing and service levels in order to meet the terms of this award and balance their budgets. We believe that Arbitrator Gray’s decision to ignore the prevailing economic circumstances clearly demonstrates why changes to the Hospitals Labour Disputes Arbitration Act (HLDAA) are urgently needed.” – Tom Closson, President and CEO, OHA.

The text of the award is available at www.oha.com.

For more information:
OHA Public Affairs
416-205-1433

Just so no one is under any kind of illusion, wages and benefits account for WELL OVER 75%, often upwards of 78%, of healthcare costs. Until those costs are brought under control, we'll never be able to fix the current system as it currently functions.

McGuinty Liberals under attack on eHealth Records, but are the attacks misplaced?

Wow, for once I get to combine both my political and my work life in a post...

The Ontario Liberals were again under attack on eHealth front, this time in the context of significant wasted dollars "reinventing the wheel" regarding Electronic Health Records.

Both Opposition Health Critic Christine Elliott and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath discussed the fact that the Children's Health Network already has an electronic health record framework in place, while eHealth is spending millions to invent their own method of doing the same thing.

All I can say is this... from the eHealth Record meetings I attended some months ago, I can report that up until recently, the eCHIN system currently in place WAS to be the model upon which the rest of the eHealth Record system was to be based. But a decision was made somewhere along the line and that changed, and I'm not sure why. (it was right about the time I wasn't able to make it to the meetings, ironicly)

I for one would like to know why the change was made. I can't make any claims either way, whether the decision was either good or bad, but I and a few others I've talked to would certainly like to know what the basis for the change was.

This issue does, however, speak to one of the underlying problems in Healthcare over all... major projects that are undertaken, only to be thown under a bus when the Government's priorities change. I've see it happen in various places and at various times, under BOTH the Liberal and the PC's. More of it seems to be driven by the sub-cabinet and regional levels, and it causes no end of frustration to those who have to implement these systems.

Again, I can't comment either way on if this decision was either good or bad, but it does raise a whole host of other issues regarding the systemic problems within Healthcare overall in our Province. It's time to streamline things, start prioritizing, and then putting our dollars where they make the most sense. Better co-ordination and fewer levels of buracracy would be a good place to start.

There's an irony to that, however... I think that's exactly what Mike Harris was TRYING to do in the 90's. But instead of making cuts in the middle levels of management where all the waste was, the cuts got passed down all the way to the front line staff. So who was REALLY to blame for the "Crisis in Healthcare" during the 90's, hummm?

Having said all that, it's the McGuinty Liberals who are in charge right now. Therfore, it's their mess to deal with. Here's hoping that they give us a straight answer on what went wrong, and why we're still wasting so much money on eHealth, with no results after all these years.

Good news on the stem cell front

See? All they needed was a little push to stop using tissue from murdered babies... which would have never happened had ethical folks like us had not attempted to block the use of embrionic stem cells.

Major Healthcare Vendor to port apps to Linux

Buddy of mine sent this to me this morning... and it's HUGE news.

McKesson Provider Technologies, a MAJOR vendor of clinical systems and applications, is starting to move their apps to Linux based solutions, in order to offer lower cost solutions to it's customers.

The McKesson group of companies is one of the biggest healthcare organizations in the world... you've likely been a recipiant of McKesson's services in the past. Ever get your prescriptions at Shoppers? Guess who supplies them? Though they're not a huge player in the clinical systems in Canada, there are a number of large and high-profile organizations that use McKesson based solutions. Full disclousure, I'm actually a former McKesson employee... a Hospital I used to work for had outsourced their IT department to McKesson.

By porting their apps to Linux, they're actually moving the open source movement forward by a huge step... they're legitimizing Linux in one of the most critical areas in our society, the Healthcare sector. Basically, if they feel that Linux is finally ready to run mission-critical apps that run our hospitals... well, that's just HUGE.

And it's going to keep driving down the costs of IT solutions in general, which is good news for everyone.

Video for today

Well, I only got one video link in my comments today, so I guess it's the only one I can post. So here it is... get a box of Kleenex, because it's a sad story. If this story ticks you off, do something about it... on October 10th, vote for the only person who's advocating a real solution to speed up wait times.



Want to see yours up here? Seen another one that you think deserves to be seen by the masses? Post the link in the comments.

The state of Ontario's Healthcare

People, mostly those on the left it seems, keep on accusing me of wanting to implement some sort of a US-style healthcare system here in Canada. For the record, I think the US model SUCKS, and I don't advocate anything of the sort... just read any of my blog posts on healthcare, and you'll see that I've never advocated any other position.

Now, Mr. Tory is proposing a sensible idea in an effort to solve our longstanding problems with wait times. But why is it that people on the left can't seem to understand a simple concept? I DO NOT SUPPORT PRIVATIZING OUR SYSTEM! There's a HUGE difference between "privatization" and private DELIVERY of selected services.

Sometimes, the private sector can do things WAY better than the public sector... sometimes they can do it equally as well, and other times, the public sector is the best means by which a job can be done.

I'll give you a concrete example of sucessful public/private co-operation from my own experience... the first Hospital I worked in had a private company running the IT system... for profit. GASP! Say it ain't so! A private company, working for profit, in an Ontario Hospital! Yep, and the entire Hospital was greatful that we were there. That's because before my company took over, the IT department was run in-house... problem was, it was run by hospital staff. Now that in and off itself was not the problem... the problem was that all the vacancies that came up in the department went NOT to the most qualified person, but to the most senior union type who wanted it. (in fact, if I recall the story correctly, a great candidate was awarded an open job, but then a more senior union person filed a grievence based on her seniority... and was awarded the post instead. When we took over the IT department, she was shuffled into a new IT liason position... where she regularly brought the system to a complete standstill by running massive reports that she had been REPEATEDLY told she was not supposed to run during regular production hours. She was so incompetent, that she was fired shortly after I left the organization) As a direct result of years of combined incompetence, THEIR SYSTEMS EXPERIENCED FAILURES ON A DAILY BASIS. Their file system was corrupted, their e-mail was about 3 years beyond extinct, and staff were used to the regular overhead pages, "Attention: The [blank] system is presently unavailable". ([blank] being the name of the affected system, not an explitive to describe the person's frustration)

Fast forward three years, to right before I was about to leave... the infractructure was almost entirely replaced, and had an ongoing 99.95% uptime record. Overhead pages due to system failures were almost non-existant, and staff confidence in the systems were extremely high. Our helpdesk actually had an 80+% POE (point of entry) call resolution rate, a fantastic achievement for any helpdesk. All that because a private company came in and, for profit, and got the job that needed to be done, done.

Now, you might say that IT and living patients are a totally different case, and I'd agree, but only up to a point. My point is that when there is an identified problem within the healthcare system, steps need to be taken to correct it.

For example, we have a problem with Operating Room availability. How do we address that? One idea is to have more surguries scheduled into the night, but who wants to work nights? (I know staffing is a major problem when it comes to scheduling operations)

Having also worked for a while in Optometery, I know of fully equiped OR's already here in Ontario that are sitting idle a lot of the time... they're used to perform for-profit non-OHIP insured optical procedures, and the owners are more than willing to open their doors to Opthomologists to perform OHIP-funded cataract surgeries. Those Opthomologists would be happy to take them up on that offer, except they can't... because they're not allowed to. The reason the waiting lists are so long for cataract surgeries? Lack of OR time.

There are lots of other simple procedures that could be done by the private sector with little or no risk to patients or to our public sector system... a public sector system which I openly support, and for the record, am happily employed in.

I would never adovcate that we implement any other sort of US-style system, thank you very much... healthcare ought to remain public. However, if the public sector needs some help to deliver these services, there ought not to be a barrier in the way on innovation.

Is this so hard to understand? Is this a concept that threatens our public institutions? Or, is this a concept that could actually help us solve the problems we're facing?

I vote for the latter... so long as I can access it with nothing more than my OHIP card.

Health User Fees?

Wow, now that's rich... based on one offhand comment by an individual, on an idea of his own, not the Party, the Ontario Liberals are accusing the PC's of looking at implementing "User Fees".

Guys? YOU'RE MAKING ME PAY ONE BIG HONKING ANNUAL USER FEE VIA MY "HEALTH PREMIUM"... and I've barely even used the Health system in the last couple of years!

Therefore, I actually agree with you... LET'S ELIMINATE THE HEALTH PREMIUM USER FEE! Join the Facebook group, and let's scrap health user fees!

Health Tax = Surplus

A nice little investigative discovery by Sandy at Crux-of-the-matter. Looks like a scam to me.

Of course, I just heard yesterday that Mr. Tory's numbers won't remove the Health Tax until 2011... about three years too late, in my opinion. Anyone else able to verify this fact? (looking into it myself as well)

Okay, now you've got my attention!

Got this Notice from the PMO today, for an announcement coming tomorrow... and I have to say, on a whole bunch of levels, I'm REALLY curious!

Public events for February 20, 2007
Ottawa, Ontario

Public events for Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Tuesday, February 20th are:

9:30 a.m. – Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will make an announcement. The Prime Minister will also be accompanied by Tony Clement, Minister of Health and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario, Josée Verner, Minister of International Cooperation and Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages, and Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry.

Reading Room (237C Centre Block)
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario

Okay, my curiosity is peaked! I'm a card carrying Conservative and big Stephen Harper fan... and I'm also an IT guy, who uses tons of Microsoft products, in a healthcare institution. (I'm right in the middle of a massive Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 rollout)

So to hear that there's going to be an announcement with Stephen Harper, Bill Gates, AND Tony Clement? There's no way I'm NOT going to be watching this announcement closely!