Navigating Business Recovery in the USA and Canada Strategies for Success

His reaction astonished me. And, while he has passed away, and I will never be able to revisit that time with him in a different, much more modern environment, I have determined that these allegations were most likely in sharp opposition to his sincerely held convictions. How could he reconcile the fact that the church and state, which were central to his identity, had caused so much harm and lossThe media's impact in molding impressions is indisputable. In the twenty years since my unforgettable talk with my grandfather, the level of journalistic reporting on this subject has significantly increased. I've noticed that even the harshest detractors have modified their viewpoints in recent years. As more indisputable information emerges, they find it increasingly impossible to ignore or refute.But there's still opportunity for improvement.As we commemorate the third National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, it is critical that the media commit to constantly reassessing their techniques for reporting on Indigenous issues. It is necessary because to a history of bias, underreporting, or utter silence. The Hub's inaugural annual Hunter Prize for Public Policy, generously financed by the Hunter Family Foundation, focused on addressing the issue of excessive wait times in Canada's health-care system. A diverse set of ten finalists were picked from approximately 200 entries by an eminent panel of judges that included Robert Asselin, Dr. Adam Kassam, Amanda Lang, Karen Restoule, and Trevor Tombe.

Congratulations to Dr. Ashley Flanagan and Dr. Kristina. 

Kokorelias on their $25,000 grand prize-winning proposal for the inaugural Hunter Prize. Bacchus Barua was the runner-up with a proposal stating that changing how hospitals are funded could be the key to health-care reform.Successive administrations in Canada have struggled to adequately address hallway medicine and wait times for hospital and long-term care (LTC) services. The Government of Ontario's Ministries of Health and Long-Term Care (MHLTC) have struggled to adopt integrated policies and solutions, demanding even greater coordination between them to create a complete solution.Recognizing the need for solutions to improve access to home and community care services as an essential component of Canada's total LTC service delivery, this proposal calls for the establishment of a Virtual LTC @ Home Program with the goal of revolutionizing the healthcare environment.Such a program would allow local integrated teams of care providers (for example, Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) and their constituent health and social care organizations) to collaborate to identify and provide a more flexible and tailored mix of care to help more LTC-eligible individuals stay at home for as long as possible. To do so, these teams would have access to the same level of financing that would have been used to care for the same persons in long-term care facilities, with the goal of addressing ever-increasing health-care waitlists and the Alternate Level of Care (ALC) problem in Ontario and across Canada.

Box 1. NIA. Definition of Long-Term Care (LTC).

The Conference Board of Canada recently estimated that in order to fulfill the growing needs for LTC services by Canada's ageing population, the country will need to more than double its current LTC bed count from 199,000 to 454,000 by 2035. A Virtual LTC @ Home Program, as demonstrated in the instance of Ontario, can provide a more cost-effective alternative to the costly exercise of redeveloping and merely increasing the overall number of LTC beds in Ontario and across Canada. We believe that this plan will clearly identify a high-impact, low-cost, politically acceptable policy solution that will effectively address health-care wait times and other delivery difficulties Indeed, by focusing more strongly on providing care in people's homes, this program has the potential to save significant capital infrastructure costs and maximize the utilization of existing LTC beds for those who need them the most, while also addressing the worsening issues of hallway medicine, wait times, surgical backlogs, and unprecedented ALC rates that continue to plague hospitals across the country.

Ontario's LTC system is currently experiencing historic capacity. 

challenges, which will have far-reaching ramifications for the province's broader healthcare system.Due to insufficient capacity to fulfill current demand for home and community care services, a record 14,000 Ontarians are on waitlists. Admissions to LTC facilities are also becoming progressively delayed, with approximately 40,000 Ontarians currently on the queue, accounting for 76% of the national waiting.This explains why, as of June 30, 2023, 2,167 Ontarians identified as ALC patients were still waiting in hospital beds for a bed to open up in an LTC home. ALC designations are granted to patients who are in hospital beds but no longer require care and could be better served in other care settings, such as LTC homes or home care (HC).As of June 30, 2023, 4,514 ALC-designated patients occupied 13.6% of Ontario's hospital beds, with 48% waiting for LTC home placement and 13% waiting for in-home care services.At the same time, Canada, particularly Ontario, has one of the lowest hospital bed-to-population ratios among OECD countries (see Figure 1). This indicates that there are fewer hospital beds available per population than in other nations with comparable healthcare systems. In contrast, Denmark, despite having a poor hospital bed-to-population ratio, has managed to maintain an unusually low ALC rate of only 1%.