There are islands of exceptional healthcare everywhere, but can we make them accessible to all patients? CEO Jennifer Zelmer of Healthcare Excellence Canada shares her top three priorities for facilitating more equitable care in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Title: A New Frontier for Healthcare Equity
Guests: CEO Jennifer Zelmer of Healthcare Excellence Canada
Host: Christine Parent, Associate Vice President, MEDITECH
Jennifer: It's been much more seeing examples of where better as possible. Seeing examples really of how that better often exists in islands. Little points of light that exist here or there, it is only available to the people who've effectively won the lottery by being in the practice or the location of that innovator or that innovative practice. And the challenge to be able to say how do we make that true for everyone?
Christine: Welcome to another episode of MEDITECH Podcast, we’re the leader in healthcare technology empowering you to be a more informed healthcare, consumer, and provider.
Hear the latest from my friends and colleagues on topics we think you should know about. I'm Christine Parent, MEDITECH's Associate Vice President, and today I'm talking with Jennifer Zelmer Ph.D., President, and CEO of Healthcare Excellence Canada.
We'll talk about this brand new organization, as well as Jennifer's passion for patient safety and equity, and what the new normal looks like for healthcare and IT.
Jennifer also recently spoke at our nurse forum, and I've been looking forward to chatting with her in more detail today.
Welcome, Jennifer.
So Jennifer, tell us about what Health Care Excellence Canada is? When did it get started, and what are some specific goals of the organization?
Jennifer: Health Care Excellence Canada is a brand new organization but built on the foundation of two legacy organizations. The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement and the Canadian Patient Safety Institute came together earlier this year with really the goal of shaping the future of safety and quality and healthcare, together with partners across the country.
And it's an organization that came together because and haven't we seen this during the pandemic, we needed to better match the scale of the solutions that we could offer as an organization to the scale of the challenges that exist and so being able to provide that larger capacity just made a lot of sense.
Christine: So that's obviously a positive from the pandemic of these collaborations and coming together and really trying to move quality and safety forward so that's, that's fantastic to hear.
In hearing you speak, it's clear you're passionate about the work you do with patient safety and quality. Can you share with us what inspired your passion?
Jennifer: You know, I was thinking back actually on this a little while ago and it's funny where origin stories come from, isn't it? My parents actually tell the story of me as a very young baby, and them doing, my mother was public health nurse, so she was teaching a course for new moms and they cultured my baby bottle. I'm sure it was absolutely disgusting what they grew from that culture because the point was that around, you know germs and cleanliness around babies and so on. So apparently, with my mother's milk is where healthcare started for me, literally, in my case. I think since then, needless to say at that point, I was not aware of what was going on, but since then it's been much more seeing examples of where better as possible, and seeing examples really of how that better often exists in Islands. Little points of light that exist here or there it is only available to the people who have effectively won the lottery, by being in the practice or the location of that innovator or that innovative practice. And the challenge to be able to say, how do we make that true for everyone?
Christine: So Jennifer is there any specific technology that you observed as crucial during the pandemic?
Jennifer: There's been so many, haven't there? I mean even the fact that we're able to talk this way virtually makes such a difference and I've been thinking recently about how different the pandemic experience would have been even just a few years ago.
But I think if we think about the health sector because I know that's really where your question was coming from. You know, I think there's been some, the obvious one is virtual care.
It's been an explosion in the use of virtual care right around the world. There's also some technologies that have made a fundamental impact that are a little bit more behind the scenes, things like our ability to manage the supply chain for vaccinations, for ventilators, for PPE or think about the public health surveillance technology, the communications technology that we may be able to use. You know the alerts that come on our phones that say stay at home order. All of those kinds of technologies have really sometimes in the forefront and sometimes in the background and right at the heart of the pandemic response.
Christine: What are some things that you see coming in the future of healthcare delivery in Canada?
Jennifer: Well you know, it's been interesting because as a new organization we've been out talking with people across the country about our new strategy and that's exactly one of the questions we've been asking right across the board. So next two years, next five years, what do you see as the major development? There's no question there's been a variety of responses but the top three things that came out of those conversations, the first really reimagining care of older adults with health and social needs. Not just thinking about long-term care and the work that needs to be done there. The spotlight really that the pandemic showed on the fault lines in that area, but also how to reimagine care for older adults in the community with Home and Community Care, with social support, and the integration between health and social that we've also seen be so important.
The secondary that really came up was care closer to home and community. And it’s not like this was an important pre-pandemic, of course, it was. But boy, haven't we seen during the pandemic the reinforcement for that access to care, access to high-quality care, and safe transitions from one type of care to another. And of course, virtual care is one way of achieving care closer to home and community but by no means the only one. Also a fundamental look at how we structure it and ensure how the system is responsive.
And then the third area probably no surprise, pandemic recovery, and resilience. Not just the obvious areas, so how do we deal with surgical backlogs or diagnostic backlogs, but also the people who work in the health sector and the real strains that the pandemic has placed on people working in healthcare. How do we better support individuals moving forward? How do we look at different approaches, different models, different ways of compassionate leadership of pacing that will make a difference? How do we rethink some of our basic supply chain? How do we rethink the integration of public health and other parts of the health sector?
A number of those kinds of questions, where really the pandemic has brought to the forefront issues that were there before, but that really now have a focus, and that we absolutely owe to those who've been so deeply affected by the pandemic, the look forward and the commitment to do better.
Christine: One thing that was highlighted during the past 18-plus months is the humanity of healthcare and I think you summed it up very nicely.
So, healthcare, or HC equity. You're on social media websites, share resources, and information for your bilingual communities. Can you tell us some of your experiences with this? What your organization is doing to serve these communities, challenges, and tips for other leaders?
Jennifer: Well, I think fundamentally, our organization started from the premise that everyone wants and deserves excellence in healthcare. We're definitely not there yet. So, you know, a fundamental focus on how do we understand what the current situation is? How do we understand what opportunities are for doing better together?
There's been a strong focus on cultural safety and humility. For example, a strong look at not just the pandemic response but across the board. How do we think about equity by design?
So it's not an afterthought. It's not something you consider when the metrics come in. It's something you're considering from day one and building in, and building in across the organization from a governance level absolutely within your staff, and also within the programs and within the perspectives, and even within the people who you consult with to help set your priorities.
How do we make sure that just infuses through across everything that we do?
Christine: As we end this interview, I just want to ask you on a personal note. What changed for you when the pandemic started?
Jennifer: I think the most obvious change in the short term was just being at home, staying at home.
You know, my role pre-pandemic, personally, I spent a lot of time on airplanes, a lot of time working with people across the country, and in some cases around the world.
And so, you know, the fact that since last March, I've been in motorized transport three times. Last weekend, the border just opened up between one of our provinces and another, so I biked across the border to another province and it seemed so exotic.
Christine: I agree with you. I'm looking forward to have a chance to think about what my next vacation is? Have you?
Jennifer: Well, I think my next vacation, I have a 10-year-old niece who is the apple of my eye and has me firmly wrapped around her finger. I think my next vacation will be going to visit them because it’s been since the beginning that I haven't seen them except online.
Christine: That's wonderful. So Thank you very much, Jennifer. I really appreciate your time today.
I loved this conversation. Like I said, doing better together.
Thank you very much.
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