Baycrest Health Sciences will lead a new Canadian venture aimed at optimizing the cognitive, emotional and physical well-being of older adults—across the country and around the globe. The Government of Canada 2015 Budget announcement included a federal investment of $42 million over five years for the creation of the Canadian Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation (CC-ABHI). Combined with commitments from the Baycrest Foundation and 40 leading industry, academic, public sector and not-for-profit partners, this brings the total investment in CC-ABHI to $100 million. CC-ABHI will become a national hub and network dedicated to the development, validation, commercialization, dissemination and adoption of brain health and seniors care products and services. This is one of the largest senior care investments globally, and creates
Category: hospitals
A strong sense of purpose from "the bottom"
Melanie Evans at Modern Healthcare reports: “One of the nation’s largest health systems, Ascension Health, will for the first time set a system-wide minimum wage of $11 an hour.” This is good and as it should be, but these folks are slow to have made these changes.A decade ago, when I was CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, I made a decision that no one in our hospital should be paid less than $10 an hour. There was no market-based reason to change their wages. Other Boston academic medical centers were also paying their lowest paid workers–housekeepers, transporters, and food service workers–below $10 an hour. I just thought it was wrong for a health care organization, particularly one with a
U.S. Offers Florida a Deal That Could Ease Budget Impasse
The Obama administration said it could authorize a total of $1.6 billion this year and next to reimburse Florida hospitals for treating the uninsured, potentially easing the state’s budget impasse.
Colorado: Work Goes On at V.A. Hospital Site
A last-minute deal allows work to continue for three weeks while the Veterans Affairs Department tries to meet congressional demands for a scaled-back project.
A different kind of help for migraines
With the growing concern about the use of opioids, I recalled a Chronicle program from a few years ago in which Dr. Carolyn Bernstein explains other types of therapies that can help mitigate the pain and distress of migraine headaches. Here’s the link to this short segment.
Kids and codeine: Eliminating the risk, for safer pain management
Leanne Patel, clinical pharmacist and Dr. Anthony Crocco, pediatric emergency physician have led a patient safety initiative at McMaster Children’s Hospital that has eliminated the use of codeine, which can be harmful for some children, in pediatric care at the hospital. For many health care providers, codeine has been somewhat of a household name in the realm of pain management. Codeine, an opioid medication available in various forms, was commonly used to treat mild to moderate pain, and could either be prescribed or purchased without a prescription in some combination products behind the pharmacy counter. In order for codeine to do its work in relieving pain, it first needs to be converted by our bodies into morphine. But not everyone processes codeine the same. For some, the
In their own words
As the country moves toward ever greater concentration of market power in hospital systems, it is worthwhile to look back to the “mother” of all mergers, the creation of Partners Healthcare System in the 1990s. This event should provide a warning to other parts of the country, as it resulted in substantially higher rates for this health care system compared to others in the state. For those who think that creation of ACOs, as encouraged by federal legislation, is likely to reduce costs to insurance companies and consumers, think again.This kind of market dominance often comes with a plausible sounding–but deeply flawed–rationalization by those who achieve it. As an example, here is a video of the president of Massachusetts General Hospital describing why their
How to Manage High Medical Bills
Many Americans lack the savings necessary to pay for sizable health care costs. Here’s a look at some helpful strategies to handle these payments.
Hep C irony renews questions of public confidence
In a nice touch of media irony, on the very day that Gilead Sciences, Inc. purchased a full page ad in the New York Times (web version here) talking about “new resources” available to fight Hepatitis C, a story by Andrew Pollack started with this lede:Activists in several countries are seeking to void patents on the blockbuster hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, saying that the price being sought by the manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, was prohibitive.The Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge, a legal group in New York, is expected to announce Wednesday that it has filed challenges in Argentina, Brazil, China, Russia and Ukraine. In all those countries except China, the organization is being joined by local patient advocacy groups.The actions are a sign that
Norman learns to show respect . . . again
I had the pleasure of meeting Norman Faull late last year in Johannesburg when we presented together some thoughts on process improvement to South African hospital folks. He is as kind, thoughtful, and respectful a person as you could imagine. So when he reports that he is not necessarily respectful, I take notice. His message is important, so please stick with me–especially if you are a Lean advocate or practitioner.Here’s a recent column he wrote. Excerpts:Some of us are not very good at showing respect.‘Show respect’ is one of the core calls we make to lean leaders. That simple phrase was presented to me at a Lean Summit in the USA around 2007. The speaker was John Shook and he was quoting from a
Seeing things clearly at the children’s hospitals
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the work being done by the multi-state Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS) Network. What started as a cooperative effort among the Ohio hospitals–“We compete on everything, but we don’t compete on safety”–has spread beyond, representing over 70 pediatric hospitals across the country.The network sets forth an urgent mission: To eliminate serious harm across all children’s hospitals.They note:The Network has compelling evidence that shows that if the SPS Prevention Bundles are implemented reliably, the Network will reduce harm. Employing high-reliability concepts and quality improvement science methods, SPS is focused on reducing harm by preventing readmissions, serious safety events, and the ten hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) below:Adverse drug events (ADE)Catheter-associated urinary tract