Despite their geographical proximity, their similar cultural milieux, and their comparable per capita economic standings, health care in Canada and the United States are vastly different. Is Canada too cost-conscious, putting the inevitable but seemingly insurmountable needs of the many over the immediate needs of the few? Has the United States become too client-centered, putting the needs of the privileged or particularly litigious few over the needs of the many? Which is better …
Connectivity and Care: The Ontario Healthcare System Experience
In a time where banking can be done securely from all over the world by phone application, why are we stuck relying on pieces of crumpled paper from a patient’s wallet for their medication list? In the dire time when a person requires resuscitation efforts it would be critical to know if that person is beta-blocked, or a had prescription for TCA’s or INH in an overdose situation. A provincial-wide electronic medical record could …
The True Value of Universal Healthcare
Recently, Toronto doctor Danielle Martin achieved YouTube fame by appearing in front of a United States senate hearing where she was asked to defend Canada’s single payer healthcare system to a largely partisan audience. The video shows a composed Dr. Martin outlining the benefits of Canada’s universal healthcare structure and contrasting it with the American one, while noting the strong public support in Canada for access to care that shouldn’t depend on one’s …
On Florence Nightingale: The Ladies with the Lamps.
It is difficult to imagine modern hospital care without the nursing profession. In fact, the very first hospital in Canada was created by Augustine nuns (who, practically speaking, were nurses) in 1639: the Hôtel-Dieu in Québec City, which still functions to this day. Much like how William Osler is celebrated in medical antiquity for physicians, Florence Nightingale is widely accepted as the founder of modern nursing. Her contributions in the Crimean War earned …
The Rising Cost of Canadian Healthcare
Let’s just imagine, for a second, a hypothetical patient scenario we’re faced with almost every day in the emergency department. An elderly gentleman is brought into the emergency department by his family with an exacerbation of a chronic medical condition. He’s not critically ill, but clearly isn’t thriving at home. Unfortunately he usually goes to the hospital across town, so none of his old records are accessible to you, the emergency physician. He’s …
Arbitrated nursing wage increases – a double edged sword?
At the beginning of the month, an arbitration decision finally came out after a locked negotiation battle between Ontario’s nurses’ union and the Ontario Hospital Association: despite initial threat of a decrease in wages, nursing wage increases will be 1.4% annually over the next 2 years. And rightly so – no one can argue against appropriate compensation for one of the most essential elements of acute hospital care. In fact, some would say this isn’t nearly …