Prescription for Excellence : How Innovation Is Saving Canada’s Health Care System
Prescription for Excellence : How Innovation Is Saving Canada’s Health Care System
Categories: Canada Directory Tags: Canada's, Care, Excellence, Health, Innovation, Prescription, Saving, System
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Finally I have answers as to how so many doctors had so many different diagnoses and treatments for the same set of symptoms.
‘Prescription for Excellence’ is a must read for anyone caught up in the health care system. Though Rachlis doesn’t set out to reveal the influences on our doctors that make them ‘say and do’ the things they ‘say and do’ this is one of his unintentional achievements – a significant contribution to empowering the patient in their own care.
In this book we quickly understand how the ‘fee-for-service’ penalizes doctors who spend time with patients – impacting listening, attitude, diagnosis and treatment. We rapidly appreciate the physician’s lack of access to other professionals and their non-drug therapies – a void eagerly filled by pharmaceutical companies who often establish relationships with doctors before they even leave medical school! And we recognize the seemingly endless waiting lists for an array of diagnostic procedures. With a grasp of the many influences behind a diagnosis we can become participants in our own care.
The real goal behind ‘Prescription for Excellence’ is to reveal a path to improved health care through the nurturing of innovative programs, models and techniques. Like any system, our health care system is “perfectly designed to get the outcomes it produces” and while we tend to focus on privatization or increased funding as a source of improvement Rachlis explores an alternative. Many programs in Canada, the US and Europe have succeeded in creating service improvements that channel non-hospital care away from hospitals – thereby reducing costs. Cultivating innovation and weeding out the obstacles to its growth may encourage these programs to grow beyond the conditions required for germination.
We may not all share Rachlis confidence in health care teams or his optimism for call centers, but overall there is something for everyone and understanding the pitfalls and strengths of the system is the first step to turning it to our advantage.
Angela Hobbs
Author of ‘The Sick House Survival Guide; Simple Steps to Healthier Homes.’
Rating: 5 / 5
Michael Rachlis’ new book makes an empassioned plea for a restructuring of the public health care system in Canada. He uses numerous examples both from within Canada and in the U.S. and U.K. to outline how reorganization of health care delivery can be improved without just adding more money to the system.
Mr. Rachlis appears to be strongly opposed to privatization of the health care system and cites numerous studies that have shown private systems within health care do not have patient health as the primary value.
A downside of the book is that it focuses too heavily on the current model of nurses and physicians. Research demonstrating the value of other health care providers to increase the efficiency of the health care system is not addressed.
Overall, an excellent book if you are interested in how health care works and could work in Canada.
Rating: 4 / 5
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