At a Glance

Palliative Care
Expands Services
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Piloting Program
Management

Straight Talk
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Palliative Care
Services in
Ottawa-Carleton
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Taking a Stand:
Euthanasia
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Personal Profile:
Dr. John F. Scott
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Residence
Saint-Louis
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Palliative Care
News
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Pastoral Care
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At a Glance
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Villa Marguerite
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Bereavement
Support

Palliative Care
Volunteers

Palliative Care
Education
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Pain and Symptom
Management

Research Update
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Towards a Consensus in Palliative Care

Foundation News

Employee
Service Awards

A New Direction

In past issues, this column has focused on corporate strategic planningdirections and priorities, and monitored our progress in implementing them.It has examined the broad external factors affecting our internal planninginitiatives. "At a Glance" has also explored mechanisms whichpromote two-way communications within the SCO Health Service (SCOHS) andexternally between community groups and agencies, ensuring that the planningactivities undertaken by the SCOHS have occurred on a realistic, grass-roots,and front-line basis. In so doing, we have emphasized the importance ofstructures like the SCOHS Board Community Advisory Committee as well thebroad external representation of the SCOHS by staff on the District HealthCouncil and other planning bodies and health-related agencies.

With the long-anticipated official arrival of program management withinthe SCOHS upon us, the role of a centralized operational planning functionwill be consolidated within the mandate of the President/ CEO. Resourceswill be re-allocated from a corporate planning to a program-specific level.Clearly, a global strategic planning focus remains important as a functionof the President/CEO, the governing body, and the Senior Management team.Reviewing, refining, and reshaping this plan will increasingly occur alongprogrammatic lines. Such input will come through the new Program Council,as discussed in the "Straight Talk" column.

The six major clinical divisions which comprise the focus within thenew program management structure all comprise "flagship programs"within the organization. Regardless of how long each program has been inexistence historically, all are deeply rooted within our mission-our keystrength in offering our clients, residents, and patients a range of relevantservices within the overall health care continuum. Each of these programareas is equally important in contributing to the continuum of care providedby the SCO Health Service within our catchment area, regardless of the actualnumber of beds or resources allocated to a specific program.

luxury hotels in LourdesAccordingly, "At a Glance" will also change its format, reflectingthis shift away from centralized planning. In the future, this column willbe devoted to providing updates on programs concerning their respectiveplanning venues; in other instances it will take an in-depth look at wherethe team associated with any one of these core SCOHS programs is focusingits attention.

Public Perceptions

The SCO Health Service comprises what is perhaps the largest health carecomplex of its kind in the country, offering many specialized programs andservices-some of which are unique within our broad catchment area.

Not surprisingly perhaps, the perceptions of the public regarding thetypes of programs and services we offer vary according to the program withwhich individuals have had the greatest contact. Part of the general publicremains largely unaware that the SCOHS exists, thinking of hospitals onlyin the acute care context-not in terms of long-term care.

hotels in LeedsSome may think of the SCOHS in terms of our outstanding rehabilitationor palliative care programs rather than in terms of the long-term or chroniccare services that has long been our trademark. It may come as a surpriseto many in the community that we have 65,000 outpatient visits per yearregistered in conjunction with our specialized and primary ambulatory careclinics and services.

Saas Fee Encontrar hotelesHowever our publics have come to know the SCOHS, they can be confidentthat they are receiving the best possible service and care available.

Status of Reconfiguration

As these lines are being written, we don't know what effects hospitalreconfiguration will have on the structure of SCO Hospital and other localhospitals when the dust settles later in 1996.

For most of the 18-month reconfiguration study process, the DistrictHealth Council (DHC) kept the heads of local hospitals on the periphery,on the basis of perceived potential for conflict of interest. Since lastfall however, CEOs of local hospitals have banded together to put forththeir own scenarios, outlining their collective view of how to effectivelyand efficiently deliver hospital services within the local health care continuum.

The DHC is now carefully considering two of these scenarios, one of whichwould see the closure of 60 chronic care beds in the region with no otherservice reductions. If the DHC and the province selects either of thesescenarios, there would be some limited repercussions as far as the SCOHSis concerned, but not out-of-line with our overall strategic plan.

The most important point to consider is that through all of this, itseems that the DHC continues to endorse the SCOHS strategic priorities formeeting growing community needs:

• gradually reducing general chronic care beds
• increasing specializations within chronic care, particularly geriatric rehabilitation and palliative care services
• addressing the ever-increasing need for specialized long-term care and physical rehabilitation programs
• enhancing selected health programs and services available on an ambulatory basis.

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