Bedside visits sought for VIPs

Tales of VIPs given "aliases" while in hospital, requests from vice-presidents for bedside visits to notable patients and "celebrities" ushered into private ER waiting rooms emerged from the provincial health inquiry Wednesday, part of growing evidence that Alberta's medical staff felt pressured to treat prominent patients differently.

The inquiry also heard from a Calgary hospital administrator about a decade-old request from then Calgary Health Region CEO Jack Davis to help out a member of Ralph Klein's "inner-circle," whose child was in hospital.

Janice Stewart, who was in charge of Calgary home-care services at the time, testified Davis asked her to look into whether the ill child could take part in a specialized home-care program rather than remaining in hospital.

But Stewart, who couldn't remember the person's name, determined she "couldn't do anything to expedite that," as the young patient was still too sick to be moved from the intensive care unit. The CEO accepted her advice and the matter was dropped, she said.

Davis is expected to testify at the probe into queue-jumping in the Alberta health-care system next week.

Damning cases of improper queue-jumping within the province's medical system have proved elusive so far, but stories of special treatment for some select patients requested by health brass have begun to emerge.

Stewart, now executive director of surgery for Calgary's Rockyview General Hospital, testified Wednesday that public figures were given aliases when admitted to hospital.

That helped protect their privacy when, for example, in-patient units used boards with names listed on them to organize care, she said.

Stewart also testified that before Alberta Health Services was created from the nine health regions in 2008, it was "fairly common" for her vice-president to ask her to check on VIP patients - such as public figures - just to "say hi."

"It was just a common practice at that time.

"There was no policy around it, there were no memos, nothing in writing," said Stewart, in charge of a cardiac unit at the time.

"It was usually just a phone call to say, 'Just wanted to give you a heads-up so-and-so has been admitted to your units.' "

But Stewart said she refused to pay courtesy calls to the VIPs' bed-sides, since she didn't know them and didn't feel comfortable providing special attention.

The inquiry has previously heard of similar courtesy-call visits requested in Edmonton.

Brigitte McDonough, formerly a senior manager in charge of clinical care at the University of Alberta Hospital, has testified she regularly received after-hours calls from the office of Sheila Weatherill, who was then CEO of the Edmonton health region, to check in on VIP patients.

While the calls didn't affect patient care, McDonough was expected to report back to the CEO's office, she testified.

But earlier this week, Weatherill told the inquiry that while she made calls to senior executives about VIPs being admitted to hospital, it was for "awareness" purposes only - not to spur special care - and for cases with extraordinary privacy needs.

Among Wednesday's witnesses was Jill Woodward, now executive director of emergency and surgery at Alberta Children's Hospital.

Woodward said there are still times when "VIP parents" who bring their children to the ER are taken to a waiting room "in a different area away from the public waiting room," to protect confidentiality.

But that's the only special treatment they receive, Woodward said.

The children are triaged the same way as other patients and, like others in the hospital, receive care based on medical need.

The children's hospital supervisor also described a 2010 incident involving an off-duty nurse seeking emergency care for her child, who'd suffered a laceration.

The nurse "tried to get preferential care by saying she was a nurse who worked at the hospital," at one point using her swipe card to get into the ER, Woodward said.

Families in the waiting room were "quite upset," and some complained to hospital staff. Woodward, the nurse's manager at the time, later spoke to the worker, who then apologized.

The inquiry continues today with several witnesses scheduled, including former Capital Health board chair, Neil Wilkinson, who is now Alberta's ethics commissioner, and Health Minister Fred Horne.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Edmonton Journal