Ul hospitals group hosts mid west healthcare conference
A major conference on the future of healthcare provision in hospitals and in the community has attracted 120 delegates to the Radisson SAS Hotel.
Co-hosted by the UL Hospitals Group and the Mid-West Community Healthcare Organisation, The Future for Patients: A Seamless Health Service, considered how better use of technology, health information and analytics, changes in professional practice and other innovations could improve patient outcomes and population health and drive efficiencies and cost savings in the health service.
Medical practitioners, health managers, public officials, professionals and patients all shared insights into how healthcare and health promotion strategies could be seamlessly delivered – in our hospitals, in community settings and in the home.
Opening the day-long conference, Colette Cowan, CEO, UL Hospitals Group, said the organisers were pleased to have attracted experts from the USA, the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands to share the international experience of integrating health services.
Prof Niall O’Higgins, chairman, UL Hospital Groups, noted that the Mid-West was an appropriate location for the event in that it was the only region in the country where the acute hospital network and community healthcare organisation (CHO) corresponded geographically.
Calling for closer collaboration between practitioners and policy-makers Prof O’Higgins recalled the words of the former Minister for Health in the UK, Enoch Powell, when “he spoke of two large groups grappling with one another in the delivery of healthcare; the medical profession and the politicians”.
“He compared them to the elephant and the whale, two large creatures surviving and flourishing in separate environments but who, because of their different natures, cannot understand each other, let alone interact and engage in dialogue. There are several reasons for this attitude. Doctors are trained to be concerned with the individual while politicians tend to think in terms of collectives or populations,” remarked Prof O’Higgins, himself one of Ireland’s most eminent surgeons and a past president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland.
“But the times they are a-changing and change much happen much more quickly than heretofore. The health services in this country, while delivering the highest quality of care in many areas, are also drawn downwards by several cracks, fissures and fractures that interfere with the model of a seamless system of care. Change must come from the medical profession with the realisation that doctors, in whatever specialty, are required to be not only medical experts but also advocates, scholars, communicators, collaborators and managers,” he said.
But politicians, too, had to change, Prof O’Higgins added, “with increasing understanding that care for the individual need not be in conflict with general policy”.
Among the speakers at the event was Dr Brian Griffin, a native of County Galway and who as a cardiologist at the world-leading Cleveland Clinic is acknowledged as an international expert in valvular heart disease
Dr Griffin described how the Cleveland Clinic had evolved from a single specialty hospital into a $6.2 billion international healthcare organisation which now reached into the community and into the home.
He described how for many years IT had allowed medical professionals at Cleveland Clinic to share diagnostic images electronically – an innovation also being introduced by the HSE in radiology through the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS).
And patients were increasingly part of that revolution, whether that was being empowered to access their records electronically; through virtual house calls or use of smartphone apps.
“In cardiology, for instance, people who have atrial fibrillation can now get an app where they can record their rhythm for a few seconds and email it to us,” Dr Griffin said.
Ms Cowan said it was a pleasure for UL Hospitals to co-host the inaugural conference in Limerick, the type of event that needed to be held outside of Dublin more regularly.
“In holding such an event – a first for the Mid-West - we are looking at how we can improve care for all our patients in the hospital setting and into the community. What is of enormous value is to have such a range of international experts come and share their knowledge with us on their approaches to seamless care. Equally it is an opportunity for us to share what we do well and in this region we are leading the way in how hospital groups and community health organisations work together,” said Ms Cowan.
Bernard Gloster, chief officer, Mid-West Community Healthcare, commented: ”This event is important at a number of levels. Speakers from other jurisdictions bring their experience which we can compare to our own and learn from each other. Creating an integrated or seamless service for users of healthcare is a continuous improvement journey that we remain on rather than a place where we get to and say we have arrived. As healthcare advances through modern technology and learning there are always opportunities to improve the ways in which we make the pathways more smooth for service users.”