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 [...]

Stories highlighting patient safety problems in the Canadian health care system appear in daily news reports across our country. The list includes misdiagnosis, drug, lab and surgical errors, dirty hands and dirty instruments, medical charting errors and omissions, unsupervised medical residents, and poor care management. More hospitals are now using checklists in pre-surgery, post-surgery and intensive care [...]

10) You want to outshine the North Koreans and Cubans. 9) You really won’t lose your Canadian Identity. We didn’t invent single-payer, universal health care. We adopted the system from Great Britain. 8) The politicians, health care bureaucrats, and care providers telling you to “wait your turn” in the queue will most likely never personally [...]

Many questions are being raised about Danny Williams’ choice to have heart surgery performed in the United States. If he were not the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador his choice would amount to nothing more than another number added to the growing list of Canadians leaving the country for medical care. The truth is that this [...]

You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to know that a man who has undergone brain surgery needs to remain in hospital for more than two days. Especially if he is already considered to be a high-risk patient due to pre-existing conditions including blindness and heart problems. The Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba tried [...]

You don’t have to travel far to see signs illustrating some of the problems within our current Canadian health care system. Here are two signs in my community. It has been said that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. These may be worth more…

In January, the Saskatchewan government launched a “Patient First Review” to examine patient experiences with our health care system as well as current administrative processes. The final report titled “For Patients’ Sake” was released on October 15th. It confirms what most people already know; that our health care system is failing both patients and providers. [...]

When I think about people who inspire me in the Canadian health care system I remember the stories of patients who have suffered much and yet were determined to use their experiences to help make some area of our system better. I think about doctors, nurses and other health care providers who have performed medical [...]

In our current health care system the collaborative doctor-patient relationship based on trust and open communication seems more like the exception rather than the norm. There was a time when doctors were considered to be a patient’s best advocate. Today, the doctor-patient relationship has become as complex as the system itself with many of these [...]

According to the Canadian Adverse Events Study (2004), an estimated 185,000 hospital admissions are associated with adverse events each year resulting in the deaths of 24,000 Canadians annually. Around 70,000 of these adverse events are deemed to be preventable. You’ve gone to the hospital for emergency medical treatment or surgery. You suffer an adverse event [...]