Part of new government innovation fund recipe for disaster
Nurses support many of the initiatives announced yesterday, but fear that pay-for-performance will negatively impact patient care, not enhance it
Yesterday's provincial government announcement will provide funding for innovations such as initiating primary health care projects and increasing ER holding area capacity. These are solutions that nurses have advocated for and know will enhance patient care. However, providing financial incentives to move patients quicker through emergency rooms through a pay-for-performance scheme will actually compromise patient care, not improve it says Anne Shannon, BCNU Vice President.
Under this new scheme doctors will get bonuses for better efficiency, better wait times in emergency based on how quickly patients are seen.
"Emergency rooms are not factories where incentive bonuses can sometimes work well to increase performance. The major problem in most emergency rooms is the lack of trained emergency room nurses, not enough space and stretchers, reduced numbers of support staff and limited access to acute and long-term care beds.
"And what will this actually mean for our elderly or others who have multiple complex health problems or those individuals who have English as a second language when they show up in emergency?
"How will they benefit by the 'hustle them in and hustle them out' approach to health care? It's frightening to think that some patients will not get the quality care they need and deserve," says Shannon.
"Nurses have been advocating for positive solutions to the emergency room crisis across BC for many years. Some of our ideas have been initially addressed through this fund. However, the money allocated to the pay per performance scheme could have been directed to other positive solutions, not to ones that potentially can be dangerous to patients," concludes Shannon.
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