Minister of Health Pat Atkinson and Health Indicators:"There are lies, damned lies, and statistics" |
|
|
|
Nipawin - March 25, 2000, By: Mario deSantis | |
benefit of statistical research in predicting the future is practically zero |
I have written few articles on Statistics and I explained how Statistics can lead the best of our |
health researchers off their well intended objectives. When we operate in a changing social and | |
economic system, the benefit of statistical research in predicting the future is practically zero. | |
This is what happened to the Health Services Utilization and Research Commission (HSURC) | |
under the direction of Dr. Steven Lewis(1), and this is why our related economic policies have | |
contributed to a health crisis in Saskatchewan and across Canada. | |
policies supported by statistical research |
I shiver to the thought that hundreds of millions of dollars have been mis-allocated in health care |
just for implementing policies supported by statistical research, such as the blowing up of acute | |
care beds, and the un-coordinated expansion of the so called home care(2). Statistics has been | |
brought to the forefront of our management practices by the Total Quality Management (TQM) | |
movement preached first in Japan by Edwards Deming(3). | |
confusion and mistrust |
TQM has certainly provided improvements in our workplace by removing the fragmentary and |
functional division of work among employees and making them directly responsible as a team | |
for the produced services and goods. However, when TQM is practised within a rigid | |
environmental system it fails to identify the structural deficiencies of the working environment(4). | |
In Saskatchewan, for example, we have the ongoing breaking of the Districts Health Act, we | |
have the development of ongoing obsolete health system architectures, and we have districts | |
operating as puppets of the Government and of the Saskatchewan Association of Health | |
Organizations (SAHO). You reader, you must tell me how in the world we can use Statistics to | |
find remedies to our failing health care system when the law is broken, when the health system | |
architectures are obsolete, and when there is confusion and mistrust in every corner of the health | |
care system(5)(6). | |
Health Indicators |
The current operating deficit of our districts is in the order of some $47-million(7). This means |
that the health care system is continuing to fail in providing services in accordance to needs, it | |
means that the budgeting processes are out of whack, it means there is no sharing of information | |
or knowledge among employees(8). We have a health care system which is unable to carry | |
forward a coordinated approach to the elementary double entry bookkeeping(9), and now we | |
have Minister of Health Pat Atkinson telling the districts on how to evaluate their performance | |
by the use of additional Statistics called "Health Indicators(10)(11)." | |
she cannot recognize a tree from a forest |
Pat Atkinson doesn't know yet that we already have Health Indicators showing that we are first |
in having the highest infant mortality rate of any other province, that we are first in having the | |
highest juvenile crime rate, and that we are first in having the largest proportion of children at | |
risk of getting an education because they are so poor. Do we really need additional Statistics or | |
Health Indicators, or it is a matter of telling the Minister of Health Pat Atkinson that she cannot | |
recognize a tree from a forest? | |
--------------Endnotes: | |
Quote by Mark Twain "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics" | |
Quote by Albert Einstein "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them" | |
Quote by Donella Meadows "challenging a paradigm is not a part-time job. It is not sufficient to make your point once and then blame the world for not getting it. The world has a vested interest in, a commitment to, not getting it. The point has to be made patiently and repeatedly, day after day after day" ftp://sysdyn.mit.edu/ftp/sdep/Roadmaps/RM1/D-4143-1.pdf http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/meadows/default.htm | |
General reference: Articles by Mario deSantis published by North Central Internet News http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/authors/desantis.html http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/ad/contents/healthcare.html | |
Dr. Steven Lewis: Preaching the Gospel of Statistics at SAHO Convention, by Mario deSantis, March 22, 2000 | |
Dr. Steven Lewis and HSURC Commission of Saskatchewan: Contributing sources to the decline of health care in Saskatchewan, by Mario deSantis, March 12, 2000 | |
The W. Edwards Deming Institute, W. Edwards Deming: "Lack of knowledge...that is the problem," The Deming System of Profound Knowledgehttp://www.deming.org/deminghtml/wedi.html | |
Comments on the present management philosophy of centralization of health reform with specific reference to information technology services, by Mario deSantis, June 21, 1995 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-HealthRefCentrSystArchA-Jn21-95.htm | |
North East Health District: the Closure of Carrot River Hospital and Telehealth, by Mario deSantis, March 9, 2000 | |
ATKINSON CONFIRMS COMMITMENT TO CARROT RIVER HEALTH PROJECT, Government News Release, March 23, 2000. Health - 146 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/2000/03/23-146.html | |
Health District Deficits & Surpluses, Based on Third Quarter Projections. Source: Saskatchewan Health As at March 14, 2000 http://www.skcaucus.com/news/2000/mar/summary_of_health_district_deficits.htm | |
Immediate Need of New Budgeting Processes for Saskatchewan Health and District Health Boards, by Mario deSantis, March 9, 1995 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-NeedBudgProc-mar09-95.htm | |
An Extract from PACIOLI 2000 for Windows: An Accounting Software Solution to Address the Problems of Accountability of Saskatchewan District Health Boards, by Mario deSantis, June 1996 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-pacioli.htm | |
HEALTH INDICATORS WILL HELP DISTRICTS PLAN, Government News Release, March 22, 2000. Health - 145 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/2000/03/22-145.html | |
Health Indicators are macroscopic statistics trying to measure our health status and have no significance for the short term or for smaller and mobile populations. |