Open Gov hits Ontario Ministry of Health ?!

[Michael Hardner]

Globe and Mail

Chief executive officers of hospitals and universities will be required to post their expenses online in the latest initiative by Ontario’s government to put the public sector on a shorter leash and rein in spending abuses.

...

Duncan Sinclair, professor emeritus and former dean of medicine at Queen's University, who led a restructuring of Ontario's health care services in the 1990s, said he does not know of any other jurisdiction in Canada that has legislation requiring hospital executives and others to post their expense accounts online.

Of course, the devil is waiting there... over there in the details... but any news is good news.

Let's be sure to look for these features, when the announcement comes:

- Rules around disclosure (what is an 'expense' ?, what levels of funding are published, timing for the project to start, timing of subsequent releases, time between expense posting and release of information )

- Who is auditing this information ?

- Ease of web access

- Are they planning to show trends ?

Also, the key to this information is that the Government still somehow positions itself apart from the hospitals it funds and legislates.

[Michael Hardner]

I realize that this post could go in Provincial or Health Categories - but I'm going to append it to my post from earlier today:

Globe and Mail

Consultants billed Ontario thousands for personal vacations and expenses: Auditor-General

...

The auditor conducted spot audits at 16 of the province’s 154 hospitals. The hospitals ranged in size from some of the largest, including University Health Network and Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, to smaller regional ones, including Guelph General Hospital and Timmins and District Hospital.

“We need every possible dollar going to health care used for front-line health care,” Ms. Matthews declared."

This quote is basically incorrect. The province needs to be investing intelligently in initiatives that will reduce costs. This takes brains and strategy - not politics. We need electronic records, and streamlined processes and these things cost money. It costs money to save money.