Qualitycast North

Qualitycast North is excited to bring you a special 4-episode series celebrating the 25-year anniversary of The Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada and the subsequent, ground-breaking, Romanow Report.

About the Royal Commission and Romanow Report
In 2001, the Federal government launched the landmark Romanow Commission, to examine the future of Canada’s publicly funded healthcare system. Led by Roy Romanow, the Commission combined extensive research, expert analysis, and one of the largest public consultations in Canadian healthcare history. Through engagement with healthcare professionals, governments, Indigenous organizations, and tens of thousands of Canadians, the Commission developed evidence-based recommendations aimed at strengthening the sustainability and accessibility of Medicare for future generations.

In the second part of this 4-part, special series celebrating 25 years of the Romanow report, we speak to Greg Marchildon, Roy Romanow’s Chief of Staff at the time of the inquiry and author of the book “Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada”. In this episode, Greg takes us through the political context of the Commission, how Roy Romanow was recruited as Commissioner, and their whirlwind journey to gather, collate and summarize the opinions of health organizations and the Canadian public before generating the final report all within their18-month deadline.

Join us for Part 3 in the series in which Dr. Verna Yiu, past CEO of Alberta Health Services, gives us a Provincial perspective on the Report and what it takes to implement successful health system improvement on a Provincial scale. Listen now: Generating high-impact health system improvement at the Provincial level featuring Dr. Verna Yiu, former CEO of Alberta Health Services.

Links:

Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada: The Romanow Commission (Government of Canada)

The Romanow Report (download)

Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada (Amazon)

North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

The Specialist Services Committee

Qualitycast North

Greg Marchildon and Roy Romanow interview (audio only)

Greg Marchildon and Roy Romanow interview (video)

Special Series Credits:

Hosts: Dr. Shyr Chui, Dr. Eiko Waida

Executive Producer: Aman Hundal

Producer: Lee Cameron

Technical Support: Mat Walker (Expression North), Stefanie Garraway

Part 1. The Rt. Honorable Jean Chrétien, former Prime Minister of Canada (Listen now)

Part 4. Dr. Gordon Hoag, Senior Physician Quality Improvement Co-Lead (Listen now)

Qualitycast North is excited to bring you a special 4-episode series celebrating the 25-year anniversary of The Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada and the subsequent, ground-breaking, Romanow Report.

About the Royal Commission and Romanow Report
In 2001, the Federal government launched the landmark Romanow Commission, to examine the future of Canada’s publicly funded healthcare system. Led by Roy Romanow, the Commission combined extensive research, expert analysis, and one of the largest public consultations in Canadian healthcare history. Through engagement with healthcare professionals, governments, Indigenous organizations, and tens of thousands of Canadians, the Commission developed evidence-based recommendations aimed at strengthening the sustainability and accessibility of Medicare for future generations.

We’re kicking off the series with the original instigator of the Commission and the Report, Canada’s past Prime Minister, The Right Honorable Jean Chrétien. In this interview, we discuss why he chose Roy Romanow to lead the enquiry.

Don’t miss Part 2 of the series in which we interview Greg Marchildon, Roy Romanow’s then Chief of Staff, on the background to the Commission and the mammoth task of organizing, completing and delivering the Report within their tight, 18-month schedule. Listen now: “How we built it and life on the road” featuring Greg Marchildon, former Chief of Staff to Roy Romanow.

Links:

Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada: The Romanow Commission (Government of Canada

The Romanow Report (download)

The Specialist Services Committee

Qualitycast North

Special Series Credits:

Hosts: Dr. Shyr Chui, Dr. Eiko Waida

Executive Producer: Aman Hundal

Producer: Lee Cameron

Technical Support: Mat Walker (Expression North), Stefanie Garraway

Part 3. Dr. Verna Yiu, former CEO of Alberta Health Services (Listen Now)

Part 4. Dr. Gordon Hoag, Senior Physician Quality Improvement Co-Lead (Listen Now)

In this episode we’re returning to the rural community of Hazleton in Northwest BC. The demand for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is increasing as word spreads about its usefulness, but how should one design this service that best meets the clinical, social and cultural needs of its patients? 

That’s the subject of Dr. Graham Bergstra’s quality improvement project. By asking patients directly about their experience of care before, during and after their clinic visit, Dr. Bergstra explains how we can improve patient’s experience of anxiety, vulnerability and satisfaction, whilst also ensuring they receive the most appropriate follow up care in the community. 

We also learn how this patient engagement work has been both rewarding to the care team and provided a template for expanding the service with new ketamine therapy clinics across the region.

Links:

Roots to Thrive 

Northern Health Physician Quality Improvement Program

Delivering high-quality, emergency medicine education to rural practitioners and their teams for over 15 years, the Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia’s CARE course has been consistently rated amongst the best. But what are the secrets to its success? 

This week we interview its creators Dr. Jel Coward and Dr. Rebecca Lindley, both rural family docs based in Pemberton BC, on how delivering education that meets learners where they are, understands their reality and recognizes their humanity, provides the best learning environment possible.

Links:

Rural Coordination Centre of BC - The CARE course

RCCBC Rural Continuing Medical Education Programs

The CARE course

Link: RCCbc Rural Health Conference

Medicine at the Edge (Part 1) - If you’re ever tempted to think medicine is practiced the same everywhere in British Columbia, think again. Small rural communities present specific challenges to healthcare delivery due to their size and location, no more so than in the North where we also have long, snowy winters to contend with.

That’s not to say that rural care can’t be high quality care. Providing valuable insights into rural family practice is today’s guest Dr. Ray Markham. This interview was so good we split it into two separate episodes. In this first part, Ray talks about his rural, generalist practice in Valemount, how to promote good teamwork and the unsung benefits of working in rural medicine.

Links:
Partnership Pentagram
RCCbc

Continuing Medicine at the Edge (Part 2) - In the second part of our interview with Northern rural family physician Dr. Ray Markham, we discuss some of his leadership work supporting rural communities across the province through the Rural coordination centre of BC. We discuss how to build a provincial support network and how the constraints of geography and remoteness can be turned to advantage by fueling innovation to improve care “at the edge”.

As overfilled hospitals everywhere are struggling to cope with a busy winter of respiratory disease and influenza, many in healthcare are calling for a more “upstream” approach to preventing Emergency Department visits and hospital admissions. But intervening upstream is more difficult than it sounds. Today’s guests have done just this. Talking us through their award-winning, quality improvement work in reducing ED visits and hospital admissions for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease are Donna Jouantapp, Lina Alsakran and Dr. Zoe Pullan from Cowichan on Vancouver Island. In this interview, we learn how a well-designed project with a dedicated, inclusive and nimble team can overcome obstacles on the path to sustainable, cost effective and patient-centered care. 

Links: 
The INSPIRED COPD Outreach Program and COPD Care and Education Nova Scotia