The Canadian health care system is at a tipping point with rising demands for service, record levels of job vacancies, and increasing public and political pressures. This, combined with an aging population, increasing opioid deaths, a rise in mental health conditions, and increasing food insecurity and poverty, all put a strain on the health care system. Hospitals are now over capacity and health care services are temporarily closing in rural and remote communities due to lack of staffing.
In 2009, the Canadian Nursing Association predicted that Canada could see a shortage of over 60,000 full-time nurses by 2022. Fast forward to the second quarter of 2022 and according to Statistics Canada there were 136,000 job vacancies in the health and social assistance sector, up 29 per cent from the previous year and driven by nursing vacancies.
Compounding these high levels of job vacancies are increasing demands for health services throughout the country.
These issues present challenges for any organization, even more so within the Canadian health care system, which is highly politicized and fragmented with provincial and regional approaches, challenged in recruitment and retention of trained staff and physicians, and lagging in the areas of digital health and innovation.
There are three areas of opportunity to support the Canadian health care system to thrive and meet the demands of the diverse Canadian population: collaboration, digital health, and design thinking.
Collaboration
Strengthening collaboration both within each province and federally, including collaboration with other government ministries, universities, and other organizations can enhance delivery of health care services. For example, partnering with universities can improve forecasting and projections for the future human resource demands, proactively increase the number of available seats and provide incentives for those choosing health as a career path.
Ministries of education can further build basic health education into school curriculums to provide the foundation for children to understand the social determinants of health to learn healthy behaviours that will help them in the future.
Digital health
Digital disruptors are rapidly changing the health care landscape. This accelerated during the pandemic. As individuals are becoming more comfortable using virtual platforms, digital companies are innovating to reduce the distance between patients and health care providers. For example, the NHS in the United Kingdom has created virtual hospitals where patients are cared for in their homes using wearable technology and are supported by a remote health care team of nurses, physicians, and other health practitioners. Other Canadian digital disruptors are re-imagining what healthcare can be and creating new opportunities not thought possible even a few years ago.
Through collaborative partnerships, there is an area of opportunity within the health care system to better innovate with digital organizations to create a system that can be predictive, preventative, personalized, and participatory by using technology to increase care delivery.
This includes formally shifting care outside of a clinic or hospital setting to virtual platforms that provide equitable access and care regardless of where individuals live.
Design thinking
Design thinking is the concept of using human-centred techniques to understand the obstacles within the health care system and challenge assumptions to create innovative solutions. This includes redefining the purpose of health care institutions, and rethinking what is health and where it can be provided and who can provide it. It is understanding the underlying motivations to improve performance, and limiters to innovation and the responsibilities of the patient within the health care system.
By taking a design thinking approach there can be collaboration from different industries to test ideas, and look at new opportunities that can be found and shared across multiple provinces and territories to have substantial improvements to the entire health care system. A design thinking approach can be the backbone to re-examine the health care system and advance how and where health care is provided in Canada.
Aaron Miller is a human factors and ergonomics consultant based in Kelowna, B.C. As a Canadian Certified Professional Ergonomist (CCPE), Aaron specializes in leading design and strategic change initiatives to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, and discover opportunities for performance improvement. Aaron can reached at aaronmiller764@gmail.com
