e-Health -- new year imponderables

I had occasion to visit my local walk-in-clinic over the holidays and as usual, took the opportunity to observe what was going on around me; it was 08:00 on a Sunday and the waiting room was packed within 5 minutes of the doors being opened.
As I sat there, a slew of questions began forming in my mind, such as:

• why do doctors' offices close -- do we really think illnesses follow the concept of a "work-day/week" and observe statutory holidays?
• why do we still refer to the "family doctor", as if the latter is obligated to stay around to serve us until we depart planet Earth?
• why does the Ministry of Health (MOHLTC) seek so desperately to reduce hospital emergency room wait times, yet apparently has no coordinated plans to ensure 24/7 primary healthcare provider (HCP) coverage?
• why is the MOHLTC gung-ho on the EMR, yet we hardly hear any discussion on electronically linking healthcare facilities so patient data can easily be shared?

Of course, I not only thought about the questions/issues -- heck, I tried to solve them all by myself!

For example, I'm thinking that:

• using the FHT concept, primary HCP clinics should be staffed 24/7 and managed by the LHIN for any given area
• a hospital's emergency department should be for life-threatening situations only -- if you can get there under your own steam, you should really be visiting a primary HCP clinic
• we need to stop this nonsense about ownership of patients' records -- the latter should be electronically stored and managed by the LHIN with access allowed as appropriate (patients included); do we hyperventilate about ownership of our tax/banking/insurance records? Patients' records should simply be one of the tools used by HCPs/the MOHLTC to help provide best-of-breed care for Ontario residents

The more time we spend debating this, the closer we'll get to privatization (yes, I finally said the "p" word) -- there's no way our taxes can sustain the level of spending our healthcare system requires, for any appreciable length of time -- something's gotta give!

I'm hoping an election year will help spur on some badly-needed changes.

Wishing you the best for 2011.


Ernest A. James

President & CEO
Regal Informatics Inc.