Emergency wait times website doesn't get top marks
3:00am
Edmonton / iNews880.com
7/28/2011
A new website posting estimated emergency room wait times is being called a good move by Friends of Medicare, but not ideal.
Executive Director David Eggen says a better way to cut down on wait-times is to increase the number of beds available to the patients.
"Let's not lose sight of the fact we have a capacity problem in our health care system," says Eggen. "When the capacity becomes critical, it doesn't matter if you're posting wait time numbers."
The real-time waiting lists are in effect in Calgary. They will soon come online for Edmontonians..
This program is called a first for any health care organization in Canada according to Alberta Health Services. (CHQR, td, ph)
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Grandmother spends days on a stretcher while waiting for care in hospital
Ruth Riggan spent a week sleeping on stretcher wedged between a closet and a sink at an Edmonton hospital.
Updated: Wed Jul. 13 2011 17:34:39
ctvedmonton.ca
A grandmother suffering from heart failure spent seven days on a stretcher while waiting for care in an Edmonton hospital. Ruth Riggan spent a week sleeping on stretcher wedged between a closet and a sink at the hospital.
Sleeping on a stretcher for days was the last thing she expected after arriving at the hospital for heart and liver failure.
Initially, she spend the first few nights in the emergency room, before moving to an acute care bed, but she was eventually asked to move.
"I unhappily moved to a stretcher thinking it was a short term thing. I ended up being there for 7 days and 6 nights on a stretcher," said Riggan.
And she wasn't alone. Her floor had 26 beds, but 38 patients.
"There are over capacity protocols that are in place so people can get into the ER, see a doctor see and nurse as soon as possible," said Andy Weiler, Alberta Health spokesperson.
The province says the over capacity protocol is to address a back-up and long wait times in the ER, moving patients into acute care beds.
But critics say this case is proof the system is in need of more beds.
"Unless you actually increase capacity of active treatment beds, long term care beds then you are just moving the problem around in circles," said David Eggen with Friends of Medicare.
The province says there are instances when patients cannot access a bed.
"There are pressures on the system and sometimes people cannot access a bed, they are accessing a stretcher -- maybe not the most optimal place but the fact is they are still receiving the care that they need," said Weiler.
The government has created a five-year health action plan that it says does include more beds. But critics worry the beds may never come.
"They developed a five-year plan, which is only as good at the next election," said Eggen.
And if that is the case, Riggan hopes more people speak out.
"I think it's time to step up and the let the provincial government know as taxpayers and people of this province you're not fooling anybody anymore," she said.
Riggan wanted to make it clear that the nursing staff and those taking care of her were excellent, but she believed the system is failing them.
While spending time on the stretcher, Riggan did contact the health minister's office, who contacted patient services on her behalf. Patient services explained Riggan had reached criteria to not be in an acute care bed, but not the criteria to leave the hospital.
With files from Kevin Armstrong
Ruth Riggan spent a week sleeping on stretcher wedged between a closet and a sink at an Edmonton hospital.
Updated: Wed Jul. 13 2011 17:34:39
ctvedmonton.ca
A grandmother suffering from heart failure spent seven days on a stretcher while waiting for care in an Edmonton hospital. Ruth Riggan spent a week sleeping on stretcher wedged between a closet and a sink at the hospital.
Sleeping on a stretcher for days was the last thing she expected after arriving at the hospital for heart and liver failure.
Initially, she spend the first few nights in the emergency room, before moving to an acute care bed, but she was eventually asked to move.
"I unhappily moved to a stretcher thinking it was a short term thing. I ended up being there for 7 days and 6 nights on a stretcher," said Riggan.
And she wasn't alone. Her floor had 26 beds, but 38 patients.
"There are over capacity protocols that are in place so people can get into the ER, see a doctor see and nurse as soon as possible," said Andy Weiler, Alberta Health spokesperson.
The province says the over capacity protocol is to address a back-up and long wait times in the ER, moving patients into acute care beds.
But critics say this case is proof the system is in need of more beds.
"Unless you actually increase capacity of active treatment beds, long term care beds then you are just moving the problem around in circles," said David Eggen with Friends of Medicare.
The province says there are instances when patients cannot access a bed.
"There are pressures on the system and sometimes people cannot access a bed, they are accessing a stretcher -- maybe not the most optimal place but the fact is they are still receiving the care that they need," said Weiler.
The government has created a five-year health action plan that it says does include more beds. But critics worry the beds may never come.
"They developed a five-year plan, which is only as good at the next election," said Eggen.
And if that is the case, Riggan hopes more people speak out.
"I think it's time to step up and the let the provincial government know as taxpayers and people of this province you're not fooling anybody anymore," she said.
Riggan wanted to make it clear that the nursing staff and those taking care of her were excellent, but she believed the system is failing them.
While spending time on the stretcher, Riggan did contact the health minister's office, who contacted patient services on her behalf. Patient services explained Riggan had reached criteria to not be in an acute care bed, but not the criteria to leave the hospital.
With files from Kevin Armstrong
Thursday, July 7, 2011
NewsFor-profit shuts down seniors centre
'They’re more interested in the real estate market than the health-care delivery market'
Published July 7, 2011 by Trevor Scott Howell in News
Almost 30 seniors living in the Colonel Belcher’s assisted-living wing have until the end of September to find a new place to live.
The building’s owner, Chartwell Senior Housing REIT, is not renewing its lease with Alberta Health Services.
Instead, the company, which bills itself as “the most trusted name in seniors housing,” plans to upgrade and rent its 145 seniors suites at the Colonel Belcher to maximize profits.
“These for-profit health care providers they’re more interested in the real estate market than the health-care delivery market,” says David Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare.
In fact, Chartwell states on its website that its goal is “to capitalize on the strong demographic trends present in its markets to maximize the value of its existing portfolio of seniors housing facilities.”
Eggen doesn’t fault Chartwell for doing business, but blames the provincial government for creating the conditions for companies to build a private health-care business on the backs of seniors and their families.
“At the very least the government should come clean and say ‘This is the new reality so you had better start saving because the future of seniors’ care is private and very expensive,’” says Eggen.
Email: thowell@ffwd.greatwest.ca
'They’re more interested in the real estate market than the health-care delivery market'
Published July 7, 2011 by Trevor Scott Howell in News
Almost 30 seniors living in the Colonel Belcher’s assisted-living wing have until the end of September to find a new place to live.
The building’s owner, Chartwell Senior Housing REIT, is not renewing its lease with Alberta Health Services.
Instead, the company, which bills itself as “the most trusted name in seniors housing,” plans to upgrade and rent its 145 seniors suites at the Colonel Belcher to maximize profits.
“These for-profit health care providers they’re more interested in the real estate market than the health-care delivery market,” says David Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare.
In fact, Chartwell states on its website that its goal is “to capitalize on the strong demographic trends present in its markets to maximize the value of its existing portfolio of seniors housing facilities.”
Eggen doesn’t fault Chartwell for doing business, but blames the provincial government for creating the conditions for companies to build a private health-care business on the backs of seniors and their families.
“At the very least the government should come clean and say ‘This is the new reality so you had better start saving because the future of seniors’ care is private and very expensive,’” says Eggen.
Email: thowell@ffwd.greatwest.ca
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Braid: Patients should come first in arrangements By Don Braid, Calgary Herald July 6, 2011 8:04 AM
Almost routinely, Alberta's health system produces yet another Charles Dickens moment. The latest is the looming eviction of 29 seniors from assisted living spaces subsidized by the province.
The reason, you'll read in stories by the Herald's Matt McClure, is that the private owners of the rooms want to make more money.
With a bit of upgrading, says Chartwell Seniors Housing official Richard Noonan, "we'll be able to charge whatever the market can bear."
Now that's a company so honest, in the Dickensian way, that you almost have to admire it.
It's seniors out, money in. No guff at all. There's more cash in store for the investors in Chartwell's REIT, or Real Estate Investment Trust.
We know exactly what Chartwell is; a profit-making, publicly traded company that seeks maximum returns. Anger at the company is misdirected; it would be like getting mad at your dog for soaking a fire hydrant.
But Alberta Health Services is another matter. Not for the first time, muddled public-private arrangements will cause great hardship to individuals.
Those include Len Lomore, 92, a veteran who moved in just three months ago, only to be told he's out by September.
The bleaker irony is that the Chartwell rooms are at the Colonel Belcher, on the successor site to Calgary's famous hospital for veterans. The original opened in 1919 for veterans of the First World War.
Today, the mystery is why seniors like Len Lomore continued to be placed in these rooms when the province's lease expired in January, and was never renewed.
Details are murky, but it seems that Chartwell decided not to renew, to operate the rooms with its own employees outside the public system.
As the refreshingly blunt Mr. Noonan says: "We prefer whenever possible that our employees provide care services, meals, programming rather than a third-party provider."
The "third-party provider," in this case, is AHS itself.
With no lease in effect, Chartwell appears entirely within its rights to evict the seniors with proper notice, and send the facility upscale to earn more profit.
There's an alarming echo here of the mid-decade "condo-ization" craze that saw hundreds of Calgarians driven out of apartments by higher rents, so owners could convert buildings to more profitable condos.
How many more seniors in private facilities might be vulnerable to trends like that? We never seem to know until it actually happens.
When it does, whether in senior care or other facilities, the public is always stuck with the cost of finding spaces and moving people, while families and residents face a heavy burden of fear and stress.
In February, 37 residents of Sunnyhill Wellness Centre were moved after the owners decided not to renew their contract with AHS.
The residents, including six with mental illness, were scattered to six locations around the city.
In early 2010 the dynamic was reversed when the province terminated its contract with the Health Resources Centre, a private hip and knee surgery clinic.
The company had built a new clinic but found itself without sufficient work from the public system. The ugly fallout cost the province millions in receivership and other fees.
At a bare minimum, the province needs to ensure that seniors and patients always come first in its myriad arrangements with these providers. Longer leases, as the province now seems to promise, would be a start.
For the moment, though, we actually have a system that cannot prevent a 92-year-old war veteran from being kicked out of his home.
Dickens, the great 19th-century chronicler of social injustice, could have made a whole chapter out of that.
Don Braid's column appears regularly in the Herald. dbraid@calgaryherald.com
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Almost routinely, Alberta's health system produces yet another Charles Dickens moment. The latest is the looming eviction of 29 seniors from assisted living spaces subsidized by the province.
The reason, you'll read in stories by the Herald's Matt McClure, is that the private owners of the rooms want to make more money.
With a bit of upgrading, says Chartwell Seniors Housing official Richard Noonan, "we'll be able to charge whatever the market can bear."
Now that's a company so honest, in the Dickensian way, that you almost have to admire it.
It's seniors out, money in. No guff at all. There's more cash in store for the investors in Chartwell's REIT, or Real Estate Investment Trust.
We know exactly what Chartwell is; a profit-making, publicly traded company that seeks maximum returns. Anger at the company is misdirected; it would be like getting mad at your dog for soaking a fire hydrant.
But Alberta Health Services is another matter. Not for the first time, muddled public-private arrangements will cause great hardship to individuals.
Those include Len Lomore, 92, a veteran who moved in just three months ago, only to be told he's out by September.
The bleaker irony is that the Chartwell rooms are at the Colonel Belcher, on the successor site to Calgary's famous hospital for veterans. The original opened in 1919 for veterans of the First World War.
Today, the mystery is why seniors like Len Lomore continued to be placed in these rooms when the province's lease expired in January, and was never renewed.
Details are murky, but it seems that Chartwell decided not to renew, to operate the rooms with its own employees outside the public system.
As the refreshingly blunt Mr. Noonan says: "We prefer whenever possible that our employees provide care services, meals, programming rather than a third-party provider."
The "third-party provider," in this case, is AHS itself.
With no lease in effect, Chartwell appears entirely within its rights to evict the seniors with proper notice, and send the facility upscale to earn more profit.
There's an alarming echo here of the mid-decade "condo-ization" craze that saw hundreds of Calgarians driven out of apartments by higher rents, so owners could convert buildings to more profitable condos.
How many more seniors in private facilities might be vulnerable to trends like that? We never seem to know until it actually happens.
When it does, whether in senior care or other facilities, the public is always stuck with the cost of finding spaces and moving people, while families and residents face a heavy burden of fear and stress.
In February, 37 residents of Sunnyhill Wellness Centre were moved after the owners decided not to renew their contract with AHS.
The residents, including six with mental illness, were scattered to six locations around the city.
In early 2010 the dynamic was reversed when the province terminated its contract with the Health Resources Centre, a private hip and knee surgery clinic.
The company had built a new clinic but found itself without sufficient work from the public system. The ugly fallout cost the province millions in receivership and other fees.
At a bare minimum, the province needs to ensure that seniors and patients always come first in its myriad arrangements with these providers. Longer leases, as the province now seems to promise, would be a start.
For the moment, though, we actually have a system that cannot prevent a 92-year-old war veteran from being kicked out of his home.
Dickens, the great 19th-century chronicler of social injustice, could have made a whole chapter out of that.
Don Braid's column appears regularly in the Herald. dbraid@calgaryherald.com
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Private contracts for public services = seniors booted onto the street
Calgary seniors home evicting 29 residents By Matt McClure, Calgary Herald July 4, 2011
Len Lomore, a 92-year-old war veteran, moved into the assisted living wing at Carewest Colonel Belcher just three months ago. He will need to relocate by the end of September as the owner of the facility has decided to rent the beds out privately in order to improve profitability.Photograph by: Colleen De Neve, Calgary HeraldDozens of elderly and ailing residents at a Calgary facility face eviction after the province’s health authority and the private owner failed to agree on a lease renewal.
As Alberta Health Services faces a provincewide backlog of more than 1,500 people waiting for a continuing care space, officials admitted Monday they’re now scrambling to find new homes by the end of September for 29 seniors in the assisted living wing at Carewest Colonel Belcher.
“This is unfortunate,” said Pam Brown, the authority’s executive director for integrated seniors health in Calgary.
“We do feel a lot of concern and empathy for how these residents and their families feel. This is not what anyone would like to have happen.”
Three months ago, Len Lomore sold his condominium and moved into the facility after a worsening knee condition made it difficult for him to cook and care for himself. Now, the 92-year-old war veteran is being uprooted again.
“I can’t tell you how disappointed I’m feeling,” he said.
“I worry all night and day now about where I’ll end up going and whether the care will be as good.”
While AHS’s three-year lease with Chartwell Seniors Housing REIT expired in January, the publicly traded company didn’t give the authority’s subsidiary Carewest official notice to vacate the premises until about two weeks ago.
“We were negotiating in good faith,” Brown said.
“There had been no indication they would not be renewing as they had done previously.”
Opened in 2003 amid much fanfare as a model of public-private partnership, the 30 assisted-living beds are part of a larger facility that includes 145 seniors suites rented privately by Chartwell and 175 nursing-home beds operated by Carewest.
Richard Noonan, Chartwell’s chief operating officer, said the company now plans to upgrade the assisted living beds and rent them privately to capitalize on the growing market in Calgary for retirement living.
“The profitability of that community will probably improve after we make a significant investment and reposition the suites,” Noonan said.
“We’ll be able to charge whatever the market can bear,”
With more than 24,000 suites and rooms at more than 200 locations around North America, Chartwell bills itself as one of the continent’s largest companies in the seniors’ housing sector.
While Noonan refused to reveal details of the lease discussions with AHS, he indicated the company wasn’t comfortable with continuing with the arrangement whereby Carewest workers provided nursing and care services to residents.
“We prefer wherever possible that our employees provide care services, meals, programming rather than a third-party provider,” Noonan said.
An AHS spokesman said the 17 employees affected would be given other work opportunities with Carewest.
The authority plans to add another 1,100 continuing-care spaces across Alberta by next March, including 400 beds in and around Calgary.
While none of that new capacity is set to open until this fall, Brown said she is confident that suitable accommodations for the displaced seniors can be found at existing facilities.
In his tiny studio room, Lomore watched a baseball game on television Monday, trying to distract himself from worries about where he’ll end up. Much of his pension is eaten up paying for his wife’s care at a nearby nursing home, so coughing up more to stay put at Colonel Belcher isn’t an option.
“The staff here is very friendly and very kind,” he said. “I’m shocked, but the other guys who’ve lived here for eight years now are really upset.”
His son, Dennis Lomore, said he doesn’t understand why AHS and Carewest had no idea the lease wouldn’t be renewed when they moved his father into the facility.
“I can’t believe they didn’t know this was going to happen.” he said.
“It’s typical of either their absence of planning or their integrity.”
MMCCLURE@CALGARYHERALD.COM
Len Lomore, a 92-year-old war veteran, moved into the assisted living wing at Carewest Colonel Belcher just three months ago. He will need to relocate by the end of September as the owner of the facility has decided to rent the beds out privately in order to improve profitability.Photograph by: Colleen De Neve, Calgary HeraldDozens of elderly and ailing residents at a Calgary facility face eviction after the province’s health authority and the private owner failed to agree on a lease renewal.
As Alberta Health Services faces a provincewide backlog of more than 1,500 people waiting for a continuing care space, officials admitted Monday they’re now scrambling to find new homes by the end of September for 29 seniors in the assisted living wing at Carewest Colonel Belcher.
“This is unfortunate,” said Pam Brown, the authority’s executive director for integrated seniors health in Calgary.
“We do feel a lot of concern and empathy for how these residents and their families feel. This is not what anyone would like to have happen.”
Three months ago, Len Lomore sold his condominium and moved into the facility after a worsening knee condition made it difficult for him to cook and care for himself. Now, the 92-year-old war veteran is being uprooted again.
“I can’t tell you how disappointed I’m feeling,” he said.
“I worry all night and day now about where I’ll end up going and whether the care will be as good.”
While AHS’s three-year lease with Chartwell Seniors Housing REIT expired in January, the publicly traded company didn’t give the authority’s subsidiary Carewest official notice to vacate the premises until about two weeks ago.
“We were negotiating in good faith,” Brown said.
“There had been no indication they would not be renewing as they had done previously.”
Opened in 2003 amid much fanfare as a model of public-private partnership, the 30 assisted-living beds are part of a larger facility that includes 145 seniors suites rented privately by Chartwell and 175 nursing-home beds operated by Carewest.
Richard Noonan, Chartwell’s chief operating officer, said the company now plans to upgrade the assisted living beds and rent them privately to capitalize on the growing market in Calgary for retirement living.
“The profitability of that community will probably improve after we make a significant investment and reposition the suites,” Noonan said.
“We’ll be able to charge whatever the market can bear,”
With more than 24,000 suites and rooms at more than 200 locations around North America, Chartwell bills itself as one of the continent’s largest companies in the seniors’ housing sector.
While Noonan refused to reveal details of the lease discussions with AHS, he indicated the company wasn’t comfortable with continuing with the arrangement whereby Carewest workers provided nursing and care services to residents.
“We prefer wherever possible that our employees provide care services, meals, programming rather than a third-party provider,” Noonan said.
An AHS spokesman said the 17 employees affected would be given other work opportunities with Carewest.
The authority plans to add another 1,100 continuing-care spaces across Alberta by next March, including 400 beds in and around Calgary.
While none of that new capacity is set to open until this fall, Brown said she is confident that suitable accommodations for the displaced seniors can be found at existing facilities.
In his tiny studio room, Lomore watched a baseball game on television Monday, trying to distract himself from worries about where he’ll end up. Much of his pension is eaten up paying for his wife’s care at a nearby nursing home, so coughing up more to stay put at Colonel Belcher isn’t an option.
“The staff here is very friendly and very kind,” he said. “I’m shocked, but the other guys who’ve lived here for eight years now are really upset.”
His son, Dennis Lomore, said he doesn’t understand why AHS and Carewest had no idea the lease wouldn’t be renewed when they moved his father into the facility.
“I can’t believe they didn’t know this was going to happen.” he said.
“It’s typical of either their absence of planning or their integrity.”
MMCCLURE@CALGARYHERALD.COM
Monday, July 4, 2011
630 CHED
FOM disappointed doctors and province could not reach a deal
10:32pm
Peter Haight
7/2/2011
Friends of Medicare is disappointed a 3-year deal could not be reached between the province and its doctors.
Executive Director David Eggen says the government is in a holding pattern and not dealing with health care issues.
Though the government has told the Alberta Medical Association it will continue with the status quo for one year until a new deal is reached, Eggen doesn't expect anything to happen too quickly.
"I think there's a provincial election that is getting in the way of proper decision making," says Eggen. "I think that it's possible to hash out a deal if both parties sit at the table in good faith."
AMA president Dr. P.J. White says both sides couldn't agree on issues of how to share decision-making powers and resolve differences.
Health minister Gene Zwozdesky says he plans to meet with Dr. White soon. (ph)
10:32pm
Peter Haight
7/2/2011
Friends of Medicare is disappointed a 3-year deal could not be reached between the province and its doctors.
Executive Director David Eggen says the government is in a holding pattern and not dealing with health care issues.
Though the government has told the Alberta Medical Association it will continue with the status quo for one year until a new deal is reached, Eggen doesn't expect anything to happen too quickly.
"I think there's a provincial election that is getting in the way of proper decision making," says Eggen. "I think that it's possible to hash out a deal if both parties sit at the table in good faith."
AMA president Dr. P.J. White says both sides couldn't agree on issues of how to share decision-making powers and resolve differences.
Health minister Gene Zwozdesky says he plans to meet with Dr. White soon. (ph)
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