Alberta has the second highest healthcare spending per capita only behind Newfoundland. 50% of all tax revenue collected in Alberta goes to healthcare spending.
Kenney already said the cuts won’t affect front line staff. Ahs is top heavy. Managers managing managers.
Considering management at Ahs gets 16 weeks of sick time, i think efficiencies can be found.
Alberta has the second highest healthcare spending because Alberta has higher salaries than every other province (for every industry, but just healthcare). So you are correct, we spend more than almost every other province on a per capita basis.
But the problem isn't management or administration. Administrative costs at AHS are 3.3% of overall spending.
This is more than 25% lower than the national average of 4.5%.
The 16 week is short term disability, not really sick time.
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Lol what? Do you mean 16 days? Even that would be overkill. I think we unofficially get 6-7 days at my work.
Yes, it is 16 weeks. But is it short time disability, not sick time. Doctors note required for more than 3 days or something like that.
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Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
I believe it's that some non-union employees have no short-term disability coverage, so they get 16 weeks to address that, at which point long term disability insurance would kick in.
Which would make that a pretty misleading post.
yes, a very misleading post.
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Originally Posted by Muta
So, if they don't need to claim short-term disability, they can still vacay for 16 weeks if they want?
no.
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Originally Posted by Lubicon
Or can the sick days be banked indefinately similar to the Federal government employees?
no, not banked at all.
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I felt compelled to log-in and comment for once having heard first-hand stories with my mother being a unit manager within AHS. I don't recall exactly what the cap on sick days or their allowed usage is but she's hit that mark and carried it forward for years (somewhere in the high hundreds of hours) while using ~0-2 days annually as required. Of course there may be abuse within the system but that's obviously on the ethics of each individual person and the system to catch. I'm sure she would be all for stricter standards here. Additionally while there may be a lot of redundant positions within AHS, she works Saturdays atleast once a month.
More importantly she manages a team of ~20 unionized employee's and has numerous stories of your stereotypical low performers that are basically impossible to get rid of... Off the top of my head I've heard of uncanny occurances of Monday + Friday sickdays (especially corresponding to long weekends), suspect WCB claims of "a tweaked neck" filed only after making the respective employee aware that they're currently at a 0 sick day balance and would have to take unpaid time, prescription appointments resulting in the entire afternoon off work, etc. Basically the type of people that would be fired in public companies within a week but are earning nice pensions from our tax payers dollar.
Meanwhile she has a few new to Canada employees supporting their families working under her with 3x the work ethic that she cant offer full-time positions to because they're taken up by some of the aforementioned employees. Bringing up c0oncerns about the low-performers results in something along the lines of "conflict resolution" meetings with a union rep that she says basically becomes glorified babysitting and progress reports.
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Alberta has the second highest healthcare spending because Alberta has higher salaries than every other province (for every industry, but just healthcare). So you are correct, we spend more than almost every other province on a per capita basis.
But the problem isn't management or administration. Administrative costs at AHS are 3.3% of overall spending.
This is more than 25% lower than the national average of 4.5%.
The 16 week is short term disability, not really sick time.
Administrative costs of 3.3% are based on self-reported numbers done by.... the administration. Surprised!? They often don't count physicians or nurses doing primarily administrative work in these costs.
Using the definition of administration as: " people working to direct the activity of health care but do not directly participate in patient care as a major portion of function " (as in line with the OECD #'s) shows administrative costs of 15%.
Here’s facts on what Kenney said about healthcare and he’s right. He wants to move funds from administration to front line healthcare staff.
No cuts to frontline healthcare staff.
“Within 30 days of taking office,” said Kenney, “a UCP government will commission a comprehensive performance review of Alberta Health Services, to reallocate capital significantly away from administration, to delivery of front-line services.”
Kenney said that the Review would be looking for the opinions of front-line employees of the AHS, who are most familiar with daily operations:
....
“Supporting a universal, comprehensive health-care system is a core part of the UCP’s policy declaration agreed at our founding conference,” said leader Jason Kenney. “It is the mechanism through which we will achieve a world-class system with improved quality of life for all Albertans.”
Kenney added that a UCP government would however, be looking for more value from the system.
“We shall be looking for efficiencies,” he said. “Under the NDP, our costs are up but so are our wait-times. That’s got to change: The Canadian Institute for Health Information reports that on a per capita basis, we have the highest age adjusted health-care costs in Canada. By that metric we’re spending 38% percent more than B.C., but our wait times on key procedures such as knee and hip replacements are longer than ever: It used to be a 113 day wait for knee surgery. Now it’s 143 days. We need to find out why and fix that.”
But the problem isn't management or administration. Administrative costs at AHS are 3.3% of overall spending.
This is more than 25% lower than the national average of 4.5%.
Hey, easy now. Can't be giving voters the impression that there's some correlation between the taxes they pay and the services they receive. Isn't it better for everyone if we pretend we can cut back on spending through painless 'management efficiencies?" At least until the election is over, anyway.
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Originally Posted by fotze
If this day gets you riled up, you obviously aren't numb to the disappointment yet to be a real fan.
Last edited by CliffFletcher; 04-01-2019 at 03:02 PM.
Administrative costs of 3.3% are based on self-reported numbers done by.... the administration. Surprised!? They often don't count physicians or nurses doing primarily administrative work in these costs.
Using the definition of administration as: " people working to direct the activity of health care but do not directly participate in patient care as a major portion of function " (as in line with the OECD #'s) shows administrative costs of 15%.
The bureaucracy is real.
I'm not quite sure what you're arguing here. Like are you saying that the national average of 4.5% administrative cost means that their physicians and nurses are more efficient? And that the OECD average is 15% while we're at 3% since we make our doctors do the admin work?
It'd follow then, that if you have more administrative staff to take care of administrative tasks, then the front line staff like physicians and nurses can spend more time taking care of patients.
FYI this applies to all AHS Union employees....from the collective agreement
During the probationary period worked by a Full-time continuous
Employee, any time off because of illness will be without pay. After
completion of the probationary period, such Employee shall be entitled to
cumulative sick leave credit computed from the date of commencement of
employment at the rate of one and one-half (1 1/2) normal working days per
month for each full month of employment up to a maximum of one hundred
and twenty (120) normal working days.
Administrative costs of 3.3% are based on self-reported numbers done by.... the administration. Surprised!? They often don't count physicians or nurses doing primarily administrative work in these costs.
Using the definition of administration as: " people working to direct the activity of health care but do not directly participate in patient care as a major portion of function " (as in line with the OECD #'s) shows administrative costs of 15%.
The bureaucracy is real.
You are deluded if you think numbers get fudged in an entity that spends billions of dollars and has audited financial statements.
By the way, here is a link to the information, which was compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides essential information on Canada's health systems and the health of Canadians.
FYI for all AHS Union employees....from the collective agreement
During the probationary period worked by a Full-time continuous
Employee, any time off because of illness will be without pay. After
completion of the probationary period, such Employee shall be entitled to
cumulative sick leave credit computed from the date of commencement of
employment at the rate of one and one-half (1 1/2) normal working days per
month for each full month of employment up to a maximum of one hundred
and twenty (120) normal working days.
1) AHS has several different unions, with different CBAs.
2) We were talking about management/out of scope positions, which are not unionized.
More importantly she manages a team of ~20 unionized employee's and has numerous stories of your stereotypical low performers that are basically impossible to get rid of... Off the top of my head I've heard of uncanny occurances of Monday + Friday sickdays (especially corresponding to long weekends), suspect WCB claims of "a tweaked neck" filed only after making the respective employee aware that they're currently at a 0 sick day balance and would have to take unpaid time, prescription appointments resulting in the entire afternoon off work, etc. Basically the type of people that would be fired in public companies within a week but are earning nice pensions from our tax payers dollar.
If your mother finds it “basically impossible” to get rid of poor performer she might want to read their collective agreement. The steps for how an employee can be terminated are generally in there. Perhaps she should also assess her own job performance as a manager if so many of her employees are underperforming.
Quote:
Meanwhile she has a few new to Canada employees supporting their families working under her with 3x the work ethic that she cant offer full-time positions to because they're taken up by some of the aforementioned employees. Bringing up c0oncerns about the low-performers results in something along the lines of "conflict resolution" meetings with a union rep that she says basically becomes glorified babysitting and progress reports.
With all the new positions added to AHS over the last few years you would think those employees would have been able to fill one of them or replace an employee from an existing position who took a new one. It’s not as if existing unionized employees can fill two different positions. (not sure of the exact numbers as far as new AHS positions but according to some posters on this site almost all of the jobs created in Alberta over the last few years were in the public sector so there had to have been a handful in AHS)
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I'm not quite sure what you're arguing here. Like are you saying that the national average of 4.5% administrative cost means that their physicians and nurses are more efficient? And that the OECD average is 15% while we're at 3% since we make our doctors do the admin work?
It'd follow then, that if you have more administrative staff to take care of administrative tasks, then the front line staff like physicians and nurses can spend more time taking care of patients.
No, I'm saying that reporting on administrative costs as you've quoted is voluntary and an unreliable statistics. Doctors doing administrative work often aren't counted in the administrative numbers at all.
When we use OECD methods of accounting for administrative costs withing the system, Canada's numbers are much higher, and WAY above the OECD average.
Which would help explain why our extremely expensive health care system has such poor outcomes for the population.
No, I'm saying that reporting on administrative costs as you've quoted is voluntary and an unreliable statistics. Doctors doing administrative work often aren't counted in the administrative numbers at all.
When we use OECD methods of accounting for administrative costs withing the system, Canada's numbers are much higher, and WAY above the OECD average.
Which would help explain why our extremely expensive health care system has such poor outcomes for the population.
So is your argument that we can’t compare one cost figure that is similarly measured amongst the provinces with the figures from other provinces but we can compare other cost figures that suit your narrative?
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Hey, easy now. Can't be giving voters the impression that there's some correlation between the taxes they pay and the services they receive. Isn't it better for everyone if we pretend we can cut back on spending through painless 'management efficiencies?" At least until the election is over, anyway.
Kenny has only promised 1-2% savings by finding efficiencies in the system. The city of Calgary found 4-5% savings in operational efficiencies over Nenshi’s first 7 years. The UCP promise seems reasonable
So if I’m interpreting what Kenney is saying correctly, restaurants can’t afford to pay their staff time and a half for overtime worked when they are so busy that they need extra staff?
If your mother finds it “basically impossible” to get rid of poor performer she might want to read their collective agreement. The steps for how an employee can be terminated are generally in there. Perhaps she should also assess her own job performance as a manager if so many of her employees are underperforming.
With all the new positions added to AHS over the last few years you would think those employees would have been able to fill one of them or replace an employee from an existing position who took a new one. It’s not as if existing unionized employees can fill two different positions. (not sure of the exact numbers as far as new AHS positions but according to some posters on this site almost all of the jobs created in Alberta over the last few years were in the public sector so there had to have been a handful in AHS)
Thanks for reminding me why I generally don't post in forums.
By analogy should Bill Peters be focusing his time trying to make a Giordano out of Dalton Prout?
Not sure where I mentioned "so many" underperforming employees either.
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Thanks for reminding me why I generally don't post in forums.
By analogy should Bill Peters be focusing his time trying to make a Giordano out of Dalton Prout?
Not sure where I mentioned "so many" underperforming employees either.
I appreciate your insight. Don't worry about Iggy_bot, he's programmed to come in here and defend unions any time the union discussion beacon lights up.
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Thanks for reminding me why I generally don't post in forums.
