Southlake Regional Hospital, On The Way Out, Emergency Room Observations, Part II

The Broader Public Sector Accountability Act (BPSAA) amended the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) to increase transparency of the hospital system. As of January 1, 2012 the hospitals became subject to the Ontario’s FIPPA and since media needs attractive and appealing the news headlines have been very upsetting probably to many of us.

It made me think about all that when I was waiting at the emergency room last Tuesday, over a week ago. Is our media exaggerating? May be or may be not. For me it is tough to say because I have seen lots of twists and turns reported by media. How much can they twist and turn since the CEO’s contracts are now transparent to everyone. Salary numbers alone do not tell the complete story.

Talking about attractive headlines, I noticed that the first Toronto Star’s headline ‘$75,000 car allowance for hospital executives revealed’ has been changed to something more not so appealing ‘Generous perks given to Ontario hospital executives, contracts reveal‘. Here is one from the York Region (not so useful either), ‘Hospital CEO perks in spotlight‘.

In my opinion, CEO salary numbers must be closely related to the hospital’s score card. What I mean and what I wish to see is that the CEO salary is tied to the performance – to elaborate CEO performance tied to the hospital performance.

I do not support extra perks CEOs are treated with. That tells me that instead of doing their job they enjoy their generous 5-6 weeks of vacation, golf, exercise and not worry about their retirement. It may be high stress job, but they are not the only ones out there with a stressful job and that kind of pampering should stop.

My other question is who works for the CEO at the hospital? The doctors, nurses, medical technicians or CONSULTANTS? We all know that sometimes consultants charge an arm and the leg. I hope you can see what I am trying to say – who really solves the issues? I have no problem with high CEO pay as long he/she can save the hospital ten or twenty times more. To me this salary information recently released just upsets taxpayers and patients. I was fortunate to have good treatment at the Southlake hospital that day so I was only semi-upset. We need to see more.

So we were on our way out… We were waiting at the entrance of the emergency room in front of the security guard station. It was too cold to stay outside, but not for one female patient.

She looked composed but was she? She had skirt and boots on and on top all she had was the hospital gown. She was holding a cigarette pack and lighter in her hands. She walked out. I looked. I couldn’t resist – under her hospital gown all she had was a black bra. Her back was all exposed. When she walked outside, to my surprise, she did not react to the cold. She went far away from the entrance to smoke, probably due to smoke free by-law. After while her behavior was strange. She would cross from one side to the other few times and at some point with her gown almost being blown away by the wind she almost slipped on the curb.

My husband arrived with the car to pick us up. He noticed the same. He too suggested that we tell security guard. I did but they seem not to care. It looked like they knew about her. I did not enjoy saying anything to them as it seems like my words did not mean a thing. Well she was way off the camera range so if there something to happen to her they would never see it. One of them finally came out when she tried to access the wrong entrance.

I just wasn’t happy about that.

‘Why did the man died?‘ – Matthew asked in the car while driving home.

‘Matthew man did not die, he was just getting transported from one hospital to another. They had to wrap him up in the sheet like that because it was really cold outside.‘ – I replied.

‘Oh, okay‘ – he replied happy.

It never occurred to me that Lion King movie would have such a strong effect on the 3.5 year old.


When we got home we all washed our hands very well (Part 1), and an air shower on the way out the hospital would be nice idea.

Conclusion, we are one step closer. We just need more hospital performance transparency, and not just views from patience. We need to have number to number comparison, CEO salaries, other costs associated with their projects and overall hospital performance score card.