Baffin hospital fails review

Kent Driscoll
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Jan 23/06) - Baffin Regional Hospital has failed a major test, but the government is promising $2.3 million to fix the problem.

The hospital has now joined a very exclusive group of health care facilities that are not up to national standards.

What accreditation means:
The Canadian Council on Health Service Accreditation tests for the following categories:
Responsiveness: Including availability, accessibility, timeliness, continuity and timeliness.
System Competency: Including appropriateness, competence, effectiveness, safety, legitimacy, efficiency and system alignment. Client and Community Focus: Including communication, confidentiality, participation, partnership, respect and, community involvement.
Worklife: Including open communication, role clarity, participation in decision making, learning environment and well being. The overall grade for First Nations and Inuit healthcare providers is nine per cent below the national average.
- Source: CCHSA

According to the most recent national statistics from a 2003 report, only one per cent of health care facilities received the dreaded "no accreditation" title, according to Canadian Council on Health Service Accreditation (CCHSA). That group conducts similar tests on all Canadian health care facilities.

Baffin Regional passed the same test three years ago, but failed tests conducted between August 2004 and December 2005.

In 2003, 41 per cent of hospitals received accreditation. Another 58 per cent received one-year conditional accreditation. That means the hospitals were given a year to correct any mistakes, and were tested again the following year.

In these cases, the problems are considered so serious that one year wasn't long enough to fix the problems within the hospital.

Baffin Regional Hospital will be tested again by the CCHSA in 18 months. The hospital was first tested in 1990 and has passed every accreditation until now.

According to the government, the accreditation found three main areas of concern:

staffing levels have not kept up with the population served by the hospital;

risk management processes were outdated; and,

record keeping systems were not up to the demands.

Health and social services minister Leona Aglukkaq would not confirm whether the report will be released to the public. She would only say that the report will be subject to Nunavut's privacy legislation.

"We are committed to reaching that national standard," said Aglukkaq.

The money will be used to help hire 26 more staff, a 20 per cent increase in personnel. According to the health department, the hospital needs housekeepers, translators, records clerks, handymen, nurses, a respiratory therapist and infection control personnel.

"The government works through a process of identifying needs. We had identified additional positions, and the report identifies where we need to focus," said Aglukkaq.

For 2005-06, the government budgeted $97,922,000 for treatment programs, which includes services at the hospital, health centres and medical transport.

The total budget for the department of health and social services is $215,219,000 for 2005-06.