Island Health CEO says medication reconciliation needed to prevent unintended harm

Wednesday, February 13, 2019 ~ VANCOUVER ISLAND.

~ by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc. | West Shore Voice News

The overall message put forth to the room of about 90 people at the Island Health board meeting on January 31 in Colwood was that the regional health authority very much needs partnerships with providers in the community.

Board chair Leah Hollins also emphasized she sees independent living in senior years as preferred lifestyle choice over institutionalized care, which is backed up with financial realities for both provincial health care budgets and families supporting their elderly loved ones.

Hollins had asked board members to keep their comments brief so that time could be maximized for speaker presentations; there were no public questions from the board. Earlier in the day, the board had toured both the new Westshore Urgent Primary Care Centre in Langford and the Belmont Wellness Centre within Belmont Secondary in Langford.

Island Health CEO Kathy MacNeil who oversees an annual budget of about $2 billion, gave a lengthy presentation covering most aspects of the health authority.

MacNeil highlighted the shift to BC’s new Urgent Primary Care Center clinics as a suitable alternative to Emergency Room visits which in many cases is also a way to attach people to a family doctor if they don’t already have one (the case for about 30,000 people in the growing west shore).

“The current model where the hospital is the default center, that needs to shift,” MacNeil said. The multi-disciplinary team approach at urgent care centers is “sustainable, and better for patients, care providers and the community”. She added that Island Health focuses on preventive care and wellness for all ages, looking to the social determinants of health for those significant impacts including housing, employment and poverty.

“We are focussed on the patient experience,” MacNeil said, as well as the workplace culture so that employees “bring their best selves to work every day”.

MacNeil readily stated that attention to medication reconciliation is needed and that there is “unintended harm from errors in providing that care”.

Adding and stopping medications has to be “carefully evaluated and communicated to the patient,” said MacNeil. “We need to implement a consistent practice across all routines.”

That will include computerization of details and not relying on the patient quite as much, said Island Health’s Jeremy Etherington, Vice President – Medicine, Quality & Academic Affairs. Etherington said some patients can be on as many as 15 different medications, oftentimes prescribed through a number of doctors. The challenge is to keep all that organized, by doing more than relying on information given by the patients themselves.

Etherington pointed out that physicians often lack the time to do quality improvement; he points to needed changes in the Doctors of BC fee schedule so that necessary levels of service and care are financially viable in the current billing model.

A quick Island Health infographic presentation included “day in the life” statistics such as 10,540 home care clients served, 6,000 volunteers contributing, and 16 babies born each day.

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This article was first published on page 2 in the February 1, 2019 print-PDF weekend digest edition of West Shore Voice News

A presentation by Sooke School District 62 (SD62) was made at the January 31, 2019 board meeting [link to come]