CEO Blog

Star light, star bright, First star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have this wish I wish tonight. Children’s Nursery Rhyme by Anonymous. Many of us grew up with this old nursery rhyme.  It likely was our first exposure to poetry and perhaps  our first fascination with the night sky.  Between this rhyme and Twinkle, twinkle little star, we sealed our association of stars being able to deliver wishes and aspirations.  The stars give us that sense of awe and hope.

I was staring out in awe and humility over the Arctic Ocean on a sunny Saturday morning this past August and smelling the salty air looking out towards what would be the fabled North Pole somewhere, still many hundreds of miles away.

I remember hearing this quote early in my professional career. I thought it was one of those esoteric, means nothing, quotes. I was wrong.

Given the backlog of procedures and healthcare that has not been delivered during the last two years of COVID, the seconds are ticking for people who need care. Let’s make sure we get the best talent on the field.

Playing Nostradamus in health care can be foolhardy.  Think about how our priorities have shifted and evolved over the past two years. Who would have known at the outset of 2020 that terms like “PPE,” “supply chain” and “vaccine hesitancy” would become water cooler (well, virtual water cooler) conversation? How many people could name their Chief Medical Officer of Health? Now people have opinions of them ranging from hero to villain. 

The healthcare system in Canada must balance so many elements, trying to be green ain’t easy. In fact, our healthcare sector is among the worst in the world in terms of greenhouse gas pollution. When we say green or sustainable, we think of the environment, but for us it includes the societal and fiscal factors of sustainability, as well. 

Frontline nursing and healthcare worker shortages need no primer.  We all are sadly and painfully aware of the dire situation.  While we try to address it by adding and training more healthcare workers, and overall by throwing more money at the problem, I believe a multi-pronged approach is needed. If we do not change how we deliver care – trying to add more nurses, for example – at the rate we need, based on how we provide care today, a solution may be mathematically impossible.  We simply cannot train them fast enough if we do not change our delivery of care.

In recognition of IPAC Week, HealthPRO invited Colette Ouellet, Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Queensway Carleton Hospital, and President-Elect of IPAC Canada, to share insights about her role and the various responsibilities and contributions Infection Control Professionals make in hospitals across Canada.

This year is different.  School re-opening is confusing depending on where you live.  Rules are ambiguous in many areas. There is heightened angst because of COVID. The routine of daycare, dropping off kids, picking them up, who is in class, who is virtual, is all in a turmoil because some of us work at home, some in the office and some in between. At the same time, public health rules are varied and changing.

In thinking of an appropriate way to commemorate our anniversary, we felt there was no better, or timely, approach than honouring the work of the healthcare workers who use what HealthPRO helps provide. That is why we are launching our #FacesofCanadianHealthcare art contest.

Pharmacy Appreciation Month is very dear to HealthPRO. From our in-house professional pharmacists and technicians to our partners in our member hospital pharmacy departments, we are proud of the way we use the power of knowledge about the products, and trust in our decision-making processes, to serve the needs of millions of patients, safely, effectively and in a fiscally-prudent manner.

At this time last year, many of us in healthcare were scrambling to secure supplies of masks, gowns, swabs, shields and other PPE as was most of the planet.  Healthcare executives and politicians were receiving daily emails of leads on cargo loads of PPE miraculously being secured and available.

At HealthPRO, we know drug shortages are a complex challenge that reach deep into all parts of the system. We also know this isn’t just a data problem – these are stories of real people who’ve experienced care denied or care delayed as a result of drug shortages.

Just before joining HealthPRO on January 1st of this year, I was leading the East Region of Ontario Health, a new agency that was created to achieve massive transformation in the province’s healthcare system. I was looking forward to playing a role in this mandate, helping to bring 21 agencies together and connecting care in ways that had never been done before.