A2 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 10, 1999

THE NUMBERS don't add up to proper patient care
at Mills Memarial Hospital, says Dr. Michael Kenyon,
one of the area's key medical specialists.

Hospital stats
show patient
care suffers, |
says local doc

DR. MICHAEL KENYON
carefully writes down a
series of figures on his desk
blotter.

Number of beds on Mills
Memorial Hospital’s peneral
medical ward — 25.

Number of patients ad-
mitted to the ward one day
last week — 37,

Number of new babies in
the hospital’ who aren't
counted statistically as
patients — 6 (which makes
for an actual patient count
of 43).

Number of nurses on duty
between midnight and 8
am. to look after those
palients — 3.

Kenyon, one of two inter-
nal medicine specialists in
town and who shares duties
as chicf of medical staff at
the hospital with another
physician, admits that when-
ever doctors speak up about
health care-cuts they’re ac-
cused of wanting more
money for themselves,

Bul that’s why he points
again to those numbers,
saying they tell the story.

**Twenty-five beds.
_ Thirty-seven plus”
repeats,

“As a result some patients
never got their medicine and
the next morning, — there
were nursing incident
reports being filled out
saying that,’’ said Kenyon.

He’s also careful to point
out that the numbers don’t
include the intensive care
unit, the psych unit or emer-
“gency — all of which have
their own nurses and ‘all of
whom Were busy that night
dealing with their own busy
situations.

“These are pretty com-
mon aumbers,”? — said
Kenyon, “It’s all stuff we
told them was going to
come to pass.”’

The high number of
patients to the low number
of nurses exceeds what is
the standard ratio of one
nurse to = approximately
seven people.

But when ‘administrators
phone for back up nurses;
they're finding ones who
have already worked more
over time then they want,

“Some are way over the
limit, We just run out of
nurses,”’ said Kenyon.

That 25-bed figure comes
from the budget assigned by
the provincial government
to Mills.

Whenever the bed count
exceeds that number, costs
rise and so does the hospi-
tal’s deficit.

Kenyon expects an on-

going review of who is ad- :
mitted, why they are ad-:

mitted and how long: they

stay to back up local posi- °°.
tions that a 25-bed general Paw ae
ward budget simply isn’t’ ©

enough,

“We are on or below the
averages across the province ”

six
’ patients. Three nurses,’? he

here from emergency.”

But what frustrates
Kenyon and other
physicians are statements
from the government that
there is nothing wrong with
the health care system.

“The bottom line is
people aren't getting the
health care they need,’” he
said.

- “At the end of the day
we're running out of fingers
to put in the dyke.”

“If you told people stan-
dards are falling, that there’s
no money for nurses and
beds and you had ta come
and cook meals in the park-
ing lot for family members
and that you'll have ta look
after them, that would be
one thing,’’

**But just don't tell peaple
that things are fine, because
they aren’t.”’

Hares Jt

Hospital’s financial crisis
can be solved, says expert

THE PERSON hired to set
right the finances at Mills
Memorial Hospital doesn’t
like offices.

5o Tom Novak has set up
shop in the middle of the
general clerical working
space at the hospital.

“T like to know everything
that’s going on. I can be
there with the customer,’’
said Novak while settling
into his new rolg last week,

He's billed‘a executive
mentor and he’s here under
a 15-month contract paid for
by the health ministry in
response to a continuing
deficit crisis at Mills,

“T° see myself as a
resource to the board and
management to look at crea-
tive ways of dealing with is-
stes around fiscal matters
and resource issues,’’ said
Novak.

The decision to look for a
financial expert came after a
crucial meeting of the Ter-
tace and Area Health Coun-
cil, which runs Mills, and
health ministry officials in
January,

The hospital's deficit is at
the point it could run out of
money and deplete its
reserves by next year,

A two-year plan, ending
this month, to at least
balance the hospital’s books
didn’t work out,

Novak said he took the job
after he expressed an inter-
est in taking on a new chal-
lenge.

Novak’s last position was
as chief executive of the
health council on the Queen
Charlotte Islands,

That council, newly
formed from a number of
non-profit societies running
various health care facilities
on the “Charlottes bad

amassed a deficit of more -

i.

than $500,000.

Novak arrived on the
Charlottes in July 1998, set
up a budget to cut the deficit
and reduced administrative
and nursing cosis. ;

Those same kinds of ef-

ficiencies and cost control

can be expected here as
that’s what Novak sees as
his specialty.

“T like chailenges, I don’t
see il as a big challenge,
People want to get the job
done,’” said Novak,

And he says he’s more
comfortable in setting up
new and more efficient
ways to pet things done than
in the general running of a
facility. .

But Novak warns that too
much efficiency can also be
ineffective as no money is
then spent on patient care.

He’s also a fan of
regionalized health care
authoritics, saying a central
body working in- co-
operation with local people
can deliver bettcr overall
health care. ,

The northwest did make a
start at setting up a regional
health care authority made
up of local health councils
but the idea was canned by
the provincial government
in 1996,

Critics have said the lack
of a regional authority has
hampered the ability to

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And they say the having
independent focal health
councils docsn’t address the
problem of competition for
money.

“Competition in business
is good because it brings
costs down,’’ said Novak.
“But: it isn’t good in
health as it is a public sys-
tem so competing for public
money is .going to cost
more,’’ he added.

Bom in Winnipeg, Novak
served as a medic in the air-
borne regiment until leaving
in 1982,

He has a strong academic

Tom Novak

background in health care
administration and was the
chief executive officer of a
number of health care
authorities on the prairies.

A number of those jobs in-
cluded centralizing smaller
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of a) should the patient be”. me — _

there and b) length of stay,”
he said,

Kenyon did say cost. per : oes
patient may be higher than’: :

in other places, but that’s:

because people being ade

mitted to Mills are sicker:
than patients being admitted “

to other hospitals, *

‘This is the place where:
the specialists are,’ ‘sald:
Kenyon by way of explana

tion.

kept in other hospitals is the ©
kind of patient we discharge

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