Perhaps you are a relatively healthy person and therefore feel little need to concern yourself with the plight of patients and doctors featured in news headlines across the country. Like a majority of Canadians you tend to believe that when you have a serious injury or illness that our health care system will provide the best medical [...]
A new piece of legislation aimed at improving the quality of patient care in Ontario received Royal Assent on June 8th. The Excellent Care for All Act, 2010 comes into law as the province is desperately trying to contain its escalating health care costs in an effort to reduce its $21 billion dollar deficit. The title [...]
A retired business systems analyst, Ed Mendoza recalls tackling his share of complex problems throughout his working career. Little did he know that one day he would be forced to question the logic of one of the largest systems in our country – Canadian health care. The untimely death of his wife Madeleine in March 2003 [...]
“I’d like to tell you about Madeleine and who she was as a person. Can I do that?” asked widower Ed Mendoza. “Yes, tell me about her. I’d like to hear more about her,” I said. And so begins the story of Madeleine Mendoza’s untimely death. She enjoyed talking to everyone she met and was [...]
The government of Alberta is feeling the heat after halting bankruptcy proceedings against a private surgical facility in Calgary. The Health Resource Centre (HRC), owned by Networc Health Inc., performed about 1,000 orthopaedic surgeries for the government in 2009. Anticipating future increases in its government surgical contract, the HRC entered into a lease agreement with the [...]
The world famous Mayo Clinic, a non-profit organization that owns medical facilities in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida, received much attention during the 2009 health care reform debates in the United States. President Obama praised them for delivering high quality, efficient health care and hailed them as a model to be duplicated across the nation. This shining example [...]
Patients suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a debilitating disease affecting the central nervous system, held rallies at a number of legislative buildings across the country on May 5th to voice their concerns about access to a new experimental treatment. Italian vascular surgeon Dr. Paolo Zamboni believes there is a link between MS and what he [...]
There is good news for patients around the world scheduled to have surgery on May 5, 2010. You may experience a reduced risk for hospital-acquired infections thanks to the observance of a world hand hygiene day. The World Health Organization (WHO) leads this global campaign promoting the importance of hand hygiene within the health care setting. [...]
Leslie Worthington continues the search for accountability in Canadian health care. The family members of other patients experiencing medical errors begin contacting her for help in navigating a closed-door system. On one occasion Leslie and another woman offer each other support by picketing near Concordia Hospital in an effort to gain access to information and [...]
John Klassen died at Concordia Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba on January 26, 2004, at the age of 80 from complications following a heart attack. If not for the efforts of his daughter Leslie Worthington, these would be the only known facts of this patient case. For when a patient dies as a result of medical error [...]