Quality Conversations
In this series, researchers, decision makers and other healthcare experts speak to writer and editor Jane Coutts about ways to improve quality in Canada’s healthcare system.
Dr. Ben Chan
| Dr. Ben Chan, MD, MPH, MPA, compares the way Canada delivers healthcare to a disorganized kitchen. The newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Health Quality Council and inaugural CEO of Saskatchewan’s Health Quality Council talks about how to clean up our delivery system and make the system better. He uses the example of the Saskatchewan Health Quality Council’s effort to improve chronic disease management under his leadership. The Council was awarded the Saskatchewan Health Excellence Award for that work. Last year, Dr. Chan was named Canada’s Outstanding Young Health Executive by the Canadian College of Health Services Executives. |
Dr. Alan Katz
| Dr. Alan Katz, MMSF Clinical Research Professor, Population Medicine, Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, and Associate Director, Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, found great variability of care in his seminal research work comparing family practices in Manitoba across a number of quality measures. Dr. Katz concluded that the gaps in care he identified could be putting patients at risk. In this video, he shows how healthcare outcomes can be improved.
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Steven Lewis
| Steven Lewis, President, Access Consulting Ltd., and health policy and research analyst, says Canadians focus a lot on waiting lists and access to healthcare services, but rarely ask themselves what kind of care they’re getting once they get through the door. Lewis draws on his experience as former CEO of the Health Services Utilization and Research Commission in Saskatchewan as well as his work with the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Saskatchewan Health Quality Council and Health Council of Canada, to say that quality should matter more to health policy makers and managers as well as the public they serve. Lewis looks at where in the world quality is being done well, and what we can learn from that. |
Noella Leydon
| Noella Leydon, RD, CHE, and graduate of the second cohort of the EXTRA (Executive Training for Research Application) program, uncovered a disturbing fact in her work on the nutritional status of seniors in special care homes in the Saskatoon Health Region: 49 per cent were malnourished – a reality that has devastating implications to their health and well-being. In Canada and internationally, 40 to 80 per cent of all seniors suffer the same problem. As part of her “intervention project” for EXTRA, Ms. Leydon looked at what steps where necessary to make improvements and devised an action plan, now being implemented in the region, to improve the health and quality of life for the 2000 long-term care residents it serves. |
Dr. Michael M. Rachlis
| Dr. Michael M. Rachlis, MD, M.Sc., FRCPC, health policy analysis, talks about concerns in the way chronic disease care in managed in Canada. In this interview, Dr. Rachlis explains how the problems originated and proposes improvements be made to re-admission programs, patient self-management, and the use of electronic health records in order to improve chronic disease management in Canada. Dr. Rachlis is the author of three national bestsellers about Canada's healthcare system.
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Dr. Robyn Tamblyn
| Dr. Robyn Tamblyn, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Medicine and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University, Faculty of Medicine, says electronic health information is key to driving quality improvements in the Canadian healthcare system but, she says the country’s current approach may not be getting us there quickly enough. Dr. Tamblyn proposes a more targeted approach to building the system, one area at a time, to make healthcare better, sooner – starting with drug management and integrated care for chronic disease. Dr. Tamblyn is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) scientist and the Medical Scientist at the McGill University Health Centre Research Institute.
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