The head of the nation’s largest drug distributor says innovation and technology — not additional dollars — are what’s needed to fix a health-care system many Canadians have little faith will deliver quality care to the next generation. McKesson Canada president Alain Champagne offered a contrarian view of where health-care dollars would be best spent after a Nanos Research poll commissioned by his company showed nearly 40% of Canadians believe the quality of health care will be worse for their children. McKesson isn’t a household name; Mr. Champagne says it is often described as “the largest company you’ve never heard of” — No. 15 on the Fortune 500 list. After decades of preferring to stay out of the public spotlight, the multibillion-dollar company, which distributes one of every three medications dispensed in North America, says it now wants a voice in the public debate over the future of health care. Sharon Kirkey spoke to Mr. Champagne:
Q: What do you think is driving the anxiety Canadians are feeling about the future of health care?
A: I think it stems from both their own experiences in their daily lives and the fact that they’re bombarded with some statistics that are very real around the aging population. We have a great health system, something to be valued and proud of. My father had open-heart surgery a few years ago and needed it almost the same day. He was taken care of perfectly. The system took great care of him. The same thing happened with my goddaughter. She had a brain tumour and underwent cancer treatments for months and months. Those situations, acute situations, are dealt with, with excellence. But given everything else that’s happening — the aging population, access to family doctors, the long delays for pretty basic surgery across the country — the system is getting to a point where I think people are noticing all the inefficiencies.
Q: Nik Nanos says that the usual mantra among stakeholders in response to a public policy problem is, “Just spend more.” But the Nanos poll shows most Canadians reject the notion that putting more money into health care is more important than finding better ways to deliver it. What do you think is needed?
A: You need a long-term vision. You’ve got different groups of stakeholders who claim that you need to invest more money. But when you look at the overall spending on health care in Canada, it’s not so much about spending more — it’s about being more efficient and taking a system-wide view of everything that’s going on.
[In the private sector], we have huge budget envelopes. We’re tasked with delivering productivity year-round on those spendings. The health system as a whole should be managed along those same lines. The only way you’re going to be able to generate any kind of headway is through leveraging technology to generate productivity, for example.
The fact that today, our health-care system is barely connected between the stakeholders and, more importantly, the consumer or the patient in the middle, baffles my mind. If you go between care providers, in most provinces today, the chances are that if you don’t carry your own filing system with you, or if your doctor or care providers haven’t faxed each other, they’re going to lose track.
In Nova Scotia, we’ve been piloting RelayHealth [an online, health-records service connecting 5,000 patients with family doctors. Patients can access their medical records, test results and book appointments.] It’s totally web-based. It’s secure. And it puts the patient in control of his or her own care. It’s providing better triage of patients, and virtual consultation with your doctor. So some folks who would otherwise have been cramming emergency rooms just find the right answers by exchanging emails with their doctor. Twenty per cent of people [who visit ERs] don’t need to go to hospital.
Q: According to the Nanos poll, Canadians don’t have much confidence in the ability of governments to innovate. What are the biggest barriers to innovation?
A: Some of the decision-makers today are facing great pressure to bring short term benefits to the stakeholders, to the voters. But innovation won’t happen overnight and it won’t happen in isolation. It requires different stakeholders to come together and work on this together.
We’re fast morphing into something much more than just a pure distributor. We’re now invested in retail, so we support our own banner programs with close to 1,500 pharmacies across the country. We went from a pure distribution outfit — business-to-business, no consumer interfacing — to more of a health services provider that increasingly touches the patient, either directly or indirectly, through our pharmacy assets, our clinical assets. And we’re involved quite heavily in technology.
Related
We’re looking at expanding the RelayHealth program. We’re looking at achieving the same type of success in Ontario and hopefully deploying it in other regions.
We’re big proponents of an expanded scope of practice for pharmacists. Think about the number of visits that are driven by very mild [problems] like cold sores that could, and should be handled by pharmacists. Think about the role that nurses and pharmacists could play in unclogging the system. There are all kinds of studies that point to significant capacity within the system as well.
Q: The Harper government has launched a federal advisory panel on health-care innovation. What’s your message to them?
A: Keep actively engaging the private sector in that discussion. Make them a part of the solution.
I cherish [the health system]. I travel quite a bit, so I value the quality of care that we’re getting. But I have family members who have been waiting for hip replacements for nine, 10 months who are just struggling to get around. And these things are quite normal.
It’s simply not sustainable, and I can’t see the situation improving overall without an intervention of the entire community to address it — the need for innovation, the need to leverage technology and the need to work across stakeholders to remove the operating silos in the system.
Postmedia News
• This interview has been edited and condensed.
Source:: National Post
