 Our Guest Speaker today was Ms Pat Campbell, President & CEO of OSMH.
Ms Campbell began by giving us a brief bio, as she said that often the first thing she's asked is "Who are you?".
She then went on to state that health care has changed for many reasons. The inception of midwives, new drugs, advanced communications, nurse-practitioners and not least importantly the advancing age of the Baby Boomer generation are a few examples of the changes and the need for continued change.
The former health care process of a hospital being responsible for acute/emergency care has changed and health care is adapting to both the changes and the challenges it presents.
With the aging population, the focus of health care is to ensure that patients are able and equipped to return to their homes more quickly and concurrently, to provide more care at home. Home care has a cost of $45/day, versus hospital care at $500 for the same period. In addition to the cost factor, patients most often return to a normal lifestyle while at home than they do in hospital, of course.
She also went on to say that the health care system needs to be redesigned for the Baby Boomers, who's aging population will peak in 2030. OSMH has begun making the hospital more elderly-friendly by increasing the levels and types of community-based services, by decreasing wait-times, my implimenting a Regional program, installing handrails, implimenting the use of cohesive electronic record-keeping and by training all staff in the care of the elderly and use of gentle, persuasive processes.
Ms Campbell closed by stating the main focus of OSMH, answering the question:
"What are the real needs of our patients and how can we best meet those needs both within the health care system and within the community?"
Thank you Ms Campbell for an enlightening presentation! Sorry that your picture is fuzzy and sideways. I'm a reporter, not a photographer!!
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