All the news from the newsletter

This section features items which have recently appeared in the Observatoire international de la santé et des services sociaux (OISSS) monitoring bulletin.

USA - Partnering to Succeed. How small health centers can improve care and thrive under value-based payment 

In the US, small health centres (those with fewer than 10,000 patients or an annual budget of $10 million or less) face unique challenges in securing capital, building strong data capabilities, negotiating favourable rates with vendors, and securing contracts with health plans. This paper investigates seven types of partnerships for small health centres and reviews the advantages and disadvantages of each partnership type....
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Keyword(s) : USA, Health care spending     

UK - Nurse Staffing for Safe and Effective Care 

Released by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), this position statement on nurse staffing calls for optimum staffing levels to ensure safe and effective care. It urges a review of non-nursing duties currently undertaken by registered nurses. Administrative and technological support for nurses should be increased to free up time to provide nursing care....
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Keyword(s) : UK, Health care workers     

UK - Health matters: community-centred approaches for health and wellbeing 

Published by Public Health England (PHE), this professional resource focuses on the concept and practice of community-centred approaches to health and wellbeing and outlines how to create conditions that enable community assets to thrive. The resource relies on data from the 2016-17 England Community Life Survey that asked people how they felt about their communities and their role within them....
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Keyword(s) : UK, Community care     

Europe - Comparing public and private providers: a scoping review of hospital services in Europe 

Authored by two Finnish academics, this scoping review of 24 prior studies (17 on economic issues and six on quality of care) compares the performance of 5,500 public and private hospitals in Europe. Public hospitals were most frequently found to have better economic performances and quality of care than private hospitals. Private for-profit hospitals performed worse on these measures than private non-profit hospitals....
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Keyword(s) : Europe, Hospitals, Suggested document     

Europe - A New Drive for Primary Care in Europe: Rethinking the Assessment Tools and Methodologies 

Overseen by an expert panel convened by the European Union (EU), this report looks at tools used to assess performance in primary care. It explores indicators, methodologies, and quality assurance while seeking to understand the impact of performance assessment. It finds that Europe’s primary care performance assessment systems currently vary in strength and makes seven recommendations to embed performance assessment in policy processes....
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Keyword(s) : Europe, Primary care, Suggested document     

Canada - Mental Health and Addictions System Performance in Ontario: A Baseline Scorecard 

This scorecard assesses mental health and addictions care in outpatient physician and acute care settings in Ontario from 2006 to 2014. The scorecard comprises 10 performance indicators that describe how well the health system responded to patient needs, along with eight contextual indicators reflecting the services provided and patient outcomes. Performance on each indicator is evaluated by age, sex, geography, neighbourhood income, and immigration status....
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Keyword(s) : Canada, Mental health     

Canada - How Canadian Health Care Differs from Other Systems 

Canada’s approach to health policy is much more restrictive than in other developed countries with more successful universal health-care systems, notably on the use of the private sector and patient cost-sharing, finds a new study released by the Fraser Institute....
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Keyword(s) : Canada, Performance, Suggested document     

UK - New shift worker guidance 

Healthcare employees are often assigned shift work that can affect sleeping patterns. The UK National Health Service (NHS) developed this guidance that highlights key health, safety and wellbeing issues associated with the risks of shift work. The guidance includes information on organizational and individual management of risk and ways to optimize workers’ wellbeing....
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Keyword(s) : UK, Health workers     

International - World Health Innovation Network Releases Ground breaking Innovation Procurement Cases 

The World Health Innovation Network (WIN) has published a series of case studies providing real-world evidence of the impact of innovation in procurement practices. The case studies can be used to inform policy, build health system capacity to adopt innovation, and as educational tools for organizations involved with evaluation and scalability in health systems....
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Keyword(s) : International, Innovation     

Canada - More Collaborative Family Practice Teams Being Strengthened to Enhance Access to Comprehensive Primary Health Care 

Nova Scotia is strengthening its Collaborative Family Practice Teams. Fifteen nurse practitioners, 17 family practice nurses, six social workers and a physiotherapist will join 23 collaborative family practice teams in 17 communities. The goal is to give patients better access to collaborative primary health care throughout the province....
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Keyword(s) : Canada, Primary care