NEW: Growing Communities Healthcare Alliance

GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance grows into alliance of communities across the province.

Toronto (ON): The GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance has long been an advocate for hospitals in the high growth regions surrounding Toronto. Continuing these efforts and given the needs of hospitals in other high growth communities in Ontario, the Alliance is expanding.

In addition to hospitals in the high growth regions of Durham, Halton, Peel, York, and Dufferin County, membership now includes hospitals in the fast growing regions of Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Cambridge, West Ottawa, Fergus and Wellington North. To reflect this new reality, the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance will be changing its name to Growing Communities Healthcare Alliance.

The six new Alliance members are:

• Cambridge Memorial Hospital
• Groves Memorial Community Hospital
• Guelph General Hospital
• North Wellington Health Care
• Queensway Carleton Hospital
• St. Mary’s General Hospital

They want a stronger voice to resolve long standing problems of timely local access to hospital care and hospital under funding in high growth communities.

Working in collaboration with GTA/905 and Dufferin County mayors, chairs, MPPs, and United Ways, the Alliance has helped bring to the forefront the need for improved funding and increase local access to hospital and health care services as well as other human services in high growth regions. It is hoped that these efforts can now be expanded to many more high growth communities.

The Alliance is working with the Province to begin to fix the hospital funding gaps in high growth regions and is encouraging the Ministry of Health to distribute new provincial hospital and health care funding on a population-needs-based funding formula to ensure an equitable distribution of provincial funding across Ontario.

Ann Stapleford McGuire is Chair of the Alliance. Tariq Asmi is Executive Director.

Mr. Asmi's contact information is:
Growing Communities Healthcare Alliance
Cell: (416) 948-2033 Office: (416) 205-1331
email: tariq.asmi@gtahealthcare.com
Website: www.gta905health.com

Transforming Healthcare Organizations

Imagine you are a member of a hospital's executive team, having just left a meeting in which you and other members discussed the possible introduction of an ambitious Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) system. Around the conference table you and others questioned whether CPOE would be the most effective way to realize your hospital's commitment to patient safety. Other issues that were raised included whether clinicians would support or resist the change, whether staff would have sufficient skills, where to begin, affordability and whether to proceed incrementally or with a "big bang." While there was much disagreement with respect to each of the issues, there was near unanimity around two important decisions - CPOE would be implemented and you would be the executive responsible for the system's design and implementation. This article, based on the experiences of a multi-site hospital, and drawing on past research on organizational change, provides a Four-Stage model to help change leaders in healthcare. Although relying on Toronto's University Health Network to illustrate the change model, the model is intended to speak to change leaders implementing various types of complex changes in all healthcare organizations. [from Healthcare Quarterly, 10(Sp) 2006: 10-19. Author:Brian Golden]. For the full article go here.

Transforming Healthcare Organizations

Imagine you are a member of a hospital's executive team, having just left a meeting in which you and other members discussed the possible introduction of an ambitious Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) system. Around the conference table you and others questioned whether CPOE would be the most effective way to realize your hospital's commitment to patient safety. Other issues that were raised included whether clinicians would support or resist the change, whether staff would have sufficient skills, where to begin, affordability and whether to proceed incrementally or with a "big bang." While there was much disagreement with respect to each of the issues, there was near unanimity around two important decisions - CPOE would be implemented and you would be the executive responsible for the system's design and implementation. This article, based on the experiences of a multi-site hospital, and drawing on past research on organizational change, provides a Four-Stage model to help change leaders in healthcare. Although relying on Toronto's University Health Network to illustrate the change model, the model is intended to speak to change leaders implementing various types of complex changes in all healthcare organizations. [from Healthcare Quarterly, 10(Sp) 2006: 10-19. Author:Brian Golden]

Salaries and Other Compensation for Healthcare Workers in Canada

FROM CANADA'S ACADEMIC HEALTH SCIENCES CENTRES . . . AND MORE

• BC Health Sector Summary Financial Statements, 2007 Download PDF
• Vancouver Island H.A. Staff Remuneration, 2006 Download PDF
• VCH 2005-2006 Health Services Redesign Download PDF
• Vancouver Coastal Health Employee Remuneration, 2006 Download PDF
• Fraser Health Employee Remuneration, 2006 Download PDF
• Provincial Health Services BC Employee Salaries, 2007 Download PDF
• Capital Health Edmonton Annual Report, 2006 Download PDF
• Capital Health Edmonton Review, 2006 Download PDF
• Capital Health Edmonton - 3-Year Health Plan 2006-2009 Download PDF
• Calgary Health Chief Top Paid Among Western Peers, 2006 Download PDF
• Calgary Health Region CEO compensation details Download PDF
• Ontario Ministry Salaries 06 Download PDF
• Ontario Hospital Salaries 06 Download PDF
• Capital Health Nova Scotia, Titles & Salaries, 2007 Download PDF
• Statistics Canada. Wages. Salaries. Other earnings. Download PDF

Dr. Penny Ballem, Leadership & the CBC

Leadership comes in many forms. Dr. Penny Ballem is one. BC providers and policy makers can be proud of presentations she makes in other parts of the country. To find her December 06 presentation click here. After hearing and seeing this, radio pundits (including the CBC) interviewed her and bloggers took note of her comments. Listen here.

Interdisciplinarity and leadership. Whewww

What constitutes leadership in research units? Leading a group of researchers is a very different proposition than leading in healthcare organizations, and the product is different. How do research leaders attract researchers to work in their units particularly under circumstances when the unit does not pay the salaries of the unit members? What is the relationship between leader and unit members? How does the agenda for research get developed and what is the role of the leader in setting the agenda? Are there some leadership styles that are more effective in research units than others and how do effective leaders figure this out?

Interdisciplinarity has become the watchword for research funding in Canada; however, it may not be as dominant in other countries. What is the interdisciplinary constitution of research units, how was that reached, and what are the advantages and disadvantages? Is there a difference in attracting nurse researchers and non-nurse researchers to nurse-led research units?

Read the whole article here.

Dorothy Pringle PhD
Editor in Chief
Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership