David Urbach

Thanks Christal Malcolm for being such a great mentor, role model and advocate for Black women with alopecia! breakfasttelevision.ca/videos/the-imp…

Investor-owned surgical facilities in Alberta are draining staff and resources from hospitals, increasing wait times and throwing public hospital operations into crisis. Is this really what we want in Ontario? edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new… via @edmontonjournal

@JMeddings In Ontario payments to private for-profit facilities are about three times higher than to public hospitals. This report used data obtained through FOI: cbc.ca/news/canada/to…

It's interesting. A short thread and a request for some help. I've been tweaked to look at Alberta's Chartered Surgical Facilities (CSFs). These are privately owned surgical centres that are contracted through AHS to provide publicly funded surgery. /1

Surgeons already know we can work together in teams to reduce surgical waits for our patients (and also create a more resilient work force in the process). Nothing is preventing us. #Leadership @CAGS_ACCG @CMA_Docs @OntarioHealthOH cbc.ca/news/canada/to…

We can implement these truly exciting innovations broadly across Ontario hospitals to reduce surgical wait times and promote a sustainable health system. All we need is for surgical leaders and policy makers to come on board. 6/6

There are many innovative ways to reduce surgical wait times and reduce the cost of surgical care that don’t require privatization, and don’t even require more spending. We implemented many at @WCHospital 5/6

“…there will always be those that stand ideologically opposed to innovation in the health care system…” apple.news/AclLzBc1VRbavQ… My thoughts on “innovation in the health care system”: 🧵 1/6

Our latest: why some people wait far too long for surgery in Canada while others wait very little (and the simple solution we could implement today) ⁦@OntarioHealthOH⁩ ⁦@CMA_Docs⁩ ⁦⁩ ⁦@UofTSurgery⁩ ⁦⁦@CAGS_ACCG⁩ journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…

Like so many Canadian surgeons, I am profoundly grateful for all that Dr. Robin McLeod taught me—about surgery, clinical epidemiology, and to constantly strive to make our health system better. I can think of no finer role model. We lost her too soon.

Turns out Ontario public hospitals are amazingly efficient, and provide outstanding value for money to the public. Why not fund our hospitals to perform additional surgeries like joint replacements, rather than overpay at out of hospital facilities? cbc.ca/news/canada/to…

Congratulations @uOttawaGenSurg for blazing this trail and showing all of us how team-based models of care benefit patients and surgeons alike!

@karenpalmeryvr @DocMcConks @drpaulwinston @DoctorsOfBC @BCOrthopods @CdnDrs4Medicare Health system problems can’t be solved by individuals. They need system solutions. Until every patient is in the same queue, we don’t actually know what the *real* wait time is, or what additional resources are needed (if any…total joint waits are short at many GTA hospitals)

@DocMcConks @drpaulwinston @DoctorsOfBC @BCOrthopods @DavidUrbachMD @CdnDrs4Medicare Implementing transformational system-wide single entry models to care takes physician leadership, clear communication, robust data collection, and implementation teams skilled at change management.@CdnDrs4Medicare pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29289415/

Private is dead. So let's fix. Surgeons of BC, what is the cause of your waitlist for surgery? @DoctorsOfBC @DocMcConks @BCOrthopods Is anyone offering good solutions is anyone listening. I personally do not believe the Health Authorities have been given any ability to fix this.

Lots of ideas about how to fix the surgical backlog and wait times without breaking our struggling health system

Compared with Canadian hospitals, private for-profit surgical clinics: (1) are more expensive, (2) increase wait times, and (3) result in poorer quality of care. Remind me why we need them or want them? cbc.ca/news/health/pr…

@NoahIvers @drbobbell I wish I knew! Potentially, everyone* (depending on what’s actually happening)? *everyone except people with non-volume-funded conditions like benign gynaecology, where the docs can’t cut deals with hospitals to get additional funded volumes from OH

Don't you think this is a way of getting around the collective agreement that pays time & a half for weekends? So, if staff say they need double time to work Saturday (in addition to regular hours) this is a way to pay them an extra premium? That's the only way this makes sense.

Somehow, often missed in the debate about “private” care is that surgery in not-for-profit Canadian hospitals is actually cheaper AND better than in private for-profit clinics cbc.ca/player/play/21…