e-Health -- what if...

Restaurant in Pickering, Ontario

Whilst waiting for the bus on a beautiful October morning at a busy Kingston Road intersection in Pickering, Ontario, this sign above the entrance to a restaurant (it says: "Sorry we're Open"), caught my eye -- to me it was an obvious error and although I felt for whoever was responsible, I couldn't help smiling.
However, I drove by the area a couple of days after and the same sign was still showing -- it was then I realized that this must be some sort of marketing gimmick -- something purposely contrived so that the name of the establishment would be an easy recall for consideration whenever a potential customer plans to dine out.

Obviously the mere fact that I'm writing about it must mean the tactic works!
I've seen it so often that I've now begun to consider a similar tack for our healthcare system here in Ontario; suppose, for instance that:

• we've now managed to elevate ourselves to the point that our communities are so healthy, our hospitals have been converted to "Emergency only" facilities
• in-home care for the elderly is now the standard
• hospital chronic care departments (CCDs) have, for the most part, been mothballed -- to re-open any of them requires a comprehensive evaluation process be carried out by the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN)
• any CCD that has re-opened must do so with a sign that displays in big bright red letters: Sorry, we're Open
• whenever we see the above on a CCD, it reinforces the fact that as a community, we're failing financially and health-wise, and we need to step things up and work towards quickly getting it closed again

I'm hoping that this is indeed where we're heading -- that we realize we're the arbiter of our health so we use Electronic Health Records, food, exercise, education etc. to maintain our independence.

You could perhaps argue that I'm dreaming in bright red colors, but considering the way we're we going in terms of unsustainable healthcare spending, is there an alternative? Let's hear it!

Ernest A. James

President and CEO
Regal Informatics Inc.