Roy Dobson

Cardiovascular Morbidity Associated with Nonadherence to Statin Therapy

Study Objective. To measure the extent of cardiovascular morbidity associated with nonadherence to 3‐hydroxy‐3‐methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitor (statin) therapy.

Atenolol as initial antihypertensive therapy: an observational study comparing first-line agents

Objective The role of atenolol in the management of patients with hypertension is currently under scrutiny. Our aim was to evaluate the real-world consequences of recent clinical trial findings. Methods We conducted a retrospective, cohort study using linked administrative data from the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. Eligible subjects were first-ever users of antihypertensive medications between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 2003 and were grouped into four cohorts: atenolol, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI), thiazide diuretics, or calcium antagonists. Patients remained eligible during monotherapy only. Results We identified 19 249 eligible individuals (mean age 60.6 years) who were followed for a mean of 2.3 years (SD 2.0). The rate of myocardial infarction, unstable angina, stroke, or death occurred in similar frequencies among all cohorts: atenolol (2.3%), ACEI (3.6%), thiazide diuretics (2.9%), and calcium antagonists (3.9%). After adjustment for potential confounders, atenolol therapy was not associated with higher event rates than the other first-line agents, with hazard ratios ranging between 1.03 [95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.72–1.46] and 1.24 (95% CI 0.91–1.68) for all cohorts compared with atenolol. Similar results were observed upon stratifying the sample into subjects above and below 60 years of age. Conclusion The low event rates for all cohorts suggest that atenolol has not been associated with a significant burden of cardiovascular morbidity or mortality in its traditional role for uncomplicated hypertension. Further study is needed to identify the specific types of patients that should avoid atenolol as an antihypertensive agent.

Taking the lead: Community pharmacists' perception of their role potential within the primary care team

BACKGROUND Patient-focused care provided by an interprofessional team has long been presented as the preferred method of primary care delivery. Community pharmacists should and can provide leadership for many clinical and managerial activities within the primary care team. OBJECTIVE To determine the extent to which community pharmacists are prepared to be members of the health care team, and to assess their support for general expansion of clinical responsibilities. METHODS A mail questionnaire (in either English or French) was sent to 1500 community pharmacists between February and April 2004. Respondents were asked to indicate the necessity of pharmacy leadership for a range of clinical and managerial services associated with a primary care team. Respondents were also asked to indicate the extent to which they should be more involved in drug therapy selection and monitoring, as well as assuming greater responsibility for treating both minor and chronic illnesses. RESULTS The response rate was 35.2% (470/1337) with the highest response rate in the Prairie provinces (40.6%) and the lowest in Quebec (24.4%). Most pharmacists in the study did not advocate a strong leadership role for non-discipline-specific clinical and managerial activities. Most of them indicated that community pharmacists should be more involved in selecting (69.9%) and monitoring (81.0%) drug therapy, and be more responsible for treating minor illnesses (72.0%). Support for more responsibility declined to 50% for chronic illnesses. CONCLUSIONS The findings of the study suggest substantial variability among pharmacists in their perception of the need for pharmacy leadership across 16 clinical and managerial activities.

Factors Explaining Career Satisfaction Among Psychiatrists and Surgeons in Canada

Background: The career satisfaction of specialists is affected by many variables ranging from family responsibilities, stress, the quality of services and facilities available to patients, professional rewards, and how the work is organized. Objective: To articulate models that explain a substantial portion of the variance associated with career satisfaction among surgeons and psychiatrists in Canada. Methods: Of 4958 eligible physicians across Canada, 2810 (56.7%) completed a 12-page survey between January and March 2004, following which the responding 148 surgeons and 231 psychiatrists were selected for this study. We checked response bias and found it was negligible. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to record cumulative R2, Standardized beta, and significance levels as each predictor was entered. We applied weighting factors to reflect the actual physician population in Canada. Results: The models explained 90.4% of the variance in career satisfaction for surgeons and 81.0% of the variance in career satisfaction for psychiatrists. The explanatory variables consisted of distress and coping, role in community activities, access to and quality of health care services, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, workload, and organizational structure. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that variance associated with career satisfaction can be explained using various factors reported directly by physicians. The study also confirmed that relative differences in the importance of these factors do occur among specialties. Surgeons prefer to delegate more responsibility in the management of their practices on an informal basis, whereas psychiatrists prefer to be more involved in the management of their practices and use more formal structures.

Lean and leadership practices: development of an initial realist program theory

BackgroundLean as a management system has been increasingly adopted in health care settings in an effort to enhance quality, capacity and safety, while simultaneously containing or reducing costs. The Ministry of Health in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada has made a multi-million dollar investment in Lean initiatives to create “better health, better value, better care, and better teams”, affording a unique opportunity to advance our understanding of the way in which Lean philosophy, principles and tools work in health care.MethodsIn order to address the questions, “What changes in leadership practices are associated with the implementation of Lean?” and “When leadership practices change, how do the changed practices contribute to subsequent outcomes?”, we used a qualitative, multi-stage approach to work towards developing an initial realist program theory. We describe the implications of realist assumptions for evaluation of this Lean initiative. Formal theories including Normalization Process Theory, Theories of Double Loop and Organization Leaning and the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance help understand this initial rough program theory. Data collection included: key informant consultation; a stakeholder workshop; documentary review; 26 audiotaped and transcribed interviews with health region personnel; and team discussions.ResultsA set of seven initial hypotheses regarding the manner in which Lean changes leadership practices were developed from our data. We hypothesized that Lean, as implemented in this particular setting, changes leadership practices in the following ways. Lean: a) aligns the aims and objectives of health regions; b) authorizes attention and resources to quality improvement and change management c) provides an integrated set of tools for particular tasks; d) changes leaders’ attitudes or beliefs about appropriate leadership and management styles and behaviors; e) demands increased levels of expertise, accountability and commitment from leaders; f) measures and uses data effectively to identify actual and relevant local problems and the root causes of those problems; and g) creates or supports a ‘learning organization’ culture.ConclusionsThis study has generated initial hypotheses and realist program theory that can form the basis for future evaluation of Lean initiatives. Developing leadership capacity and culture is theorized to be a necessary precursor to other systemic and observable changes arising from Lean initiatives.

Pharmacy ownership in Canada: implications for the authority and autonomy of community pharmacy managers.

BACKGROUND In recent years, the number of independently owned pharmacies has declined even as the total number of pharmacies in Canada has increased. With increasing corporate ownership, there is concern that this trend will adversely affect the professions ability to influence pharmacy practice and practice change. OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between ownership type and community pharmacy managers in terms of professional and employer authority, managerial autonomy, decision making, and amount of control. METHODS This study consisted of a cross-sectional survey of community pharmacy managers in Canada by means of a self-administered postal questionnaire sent to a stratified sample of community pharmacies. Statistical analysis consisted of exploratory factor analysis with reliability testing on identified constructs. Frequencies, 1-way analyses of variance, Scheffe post hoc tests, and general linear modeling were used to determine significant differences among groups based on ownership type. RESULTS In total, 646 of 1961 questionnaires from pharmacy managers were completed and returned (response rate 32.9%). Respondents rated their authority similarly across ownership types. Autonomy, decision-making capabilities, and control needed to carry out the professional role appear most limited among corporate respondents and, to a lesser extent, franchise managers. CONCLUSIONS Pharmacy managers currently perceive a high level of authority; but with limited autonomy among corporate managers, it is unclear whether this authority is sufficient to prevent the subordination of both patient and professional interests to financial interests.

Wellness activities address inequities

The medical model is no longer accepted by many as the best means of achieving optimal health. Financial constraints are pushing more efficient and effective ways to deliver services. In Saskatchewan, greater emphasis is being placed on wellness activities (preventive medical counselling, clinical work with other professionals, training, teaching and research and institutional medical administrative duties). We sought to determine if predicted support for these activities was related to equity of income as perceived by physicians. The study design was a cross-sectional study of all 1462 physicians actively practising in Saskatchewan during 1991/1992. The data were originally collected by Lepnurm and Henderson during the summer of 1992. ANOVA tests were conducted between predicted support for wellness activities and income equity to determine if there were significant interactions. Predicted support for wellness activities was measured by four items: preventive medicine counselling activities during office visits, clinical work with other health professionals, teaching and research, and, institutional medical administrative duties. The first income equity construct was based on: satisfaction with income, fairness of fee-for-service between general practitioners and specialists, fairness of fee-for-service between cognitive and procedural/technical specialists, and the current method of payment reflected factors important to physicians. To increase sample size a second equity construct was created by dropping fairness of fee-for-service between cognitive and procedural/technical specialists. The main effect and significant interactions with control variables were subjected to further analysis using Tukeys test. Significant relationships were found between changes in wellness activities under fee-for-service and income equity (p = 0.001 and p = 0.033) and between changes in wellness activities under salary and income equity (p = 0.002 and p = 0.037). No significant relationships (p = 0.858 and p = 0.610) were found between support for wellness activities under capitation and income equity. The findings of this study demonstrate a relationships between perceived equity of income and predicted support for wellness activities. The authors suggest that these findings were not merely a reflection of the desire by physicians to modify their tasks to accommodate perceived inequity associated with their method of remuneration. Physicians were given the option of considering which method of payment (fee-for-service, salary or capitation) best reflected factors important to them. We suggest that many physicians value wellness activities and would prefer to modify their current patterns of practice, whether they are paid by fee-for-service or by salaried methods.

Influence of ownership type on role orientation, role affinity, and role conflict among community pharmacy managers and owners in Canada

BACKGROUND Ownership of community pharmacies is increasingly being controlled by a relatively small number of corporate entities. The influence of this ownership type should not be ignored, because ownership has the ability to impact pharmacy practice. OBJECTIVES To examine the relationship between ownership type and community pharmacy managers with regard to role orientation, role affinity, and role conflict. METHODS This study consisted of a cross-sectional survey of community pharmacy managers in Canada by means of a self-administered postal questionnaire sent to a stratified sample of community pharmacies. Statistical analysis consisted of exploratory factor analysis with reliability testing on identified constructs. Frequencies, 1-way analyses of variance, and Scheffe post hoc tests were used to determine significant differences among groups, including ownership structure, on each of the constructs. RESULTS A total of 646 completed questionnaires were received (32.9% response rate). Most of the respondents were males (60.8%), with slightly less than half of the respondents identifying their practice type as an independent pharmacy (44.6%). There were 5 multi-item scale constructs (professional orientation, business orientation, professional affinity, business affinity, and role conflict) arising from the data, which were analyzed against the pharmacy ownership structure (independent, franchise, corporate) independent variable. Analysis revealed significant differences for 3 of the 5 constructs; however, no differences were seen regarding the 2 professionally focused constructs. CONCLUSIONS Community pharmacy managers/owners are generally oriented to their professional role; however, those working in a corporate pharmacy environment are less oriented to their business role when compared with those working in an independent or franchise pharmacy environment. Further research is needed to identify different practice cultures that may exist in various practice settings and the extent to which these cultures attract or define the managers working in them.

Prescription to over-the-counter deregulation in Canada: are we ready for it, or do we need to be?

Emergency contraception[1][1] is just the latest example in a long list of medications that are being shifted from prescription only to over-the-counter (OTC) status. More experience with other potent and effective prescription drugs and an increased understanding of their safety and efficacy in the

If the pillars are shaky, does faith in Medicare crumble?

The objectives of the study described in this article were to determine whether the faith of physicians in the Canadian system of health insurance depends on their assessment of quality and access to health services and whether their assessments of quality and access to health services affect their support of out-of-pocket and other methods of financing healthcare. To this end, a mail survey of 600 physicians in British Columbia and 240 physicians in Saskatchewan was conducted. The sample was stratified to ensure equal representation from urban and non-urban areas and between female and male specialists and family practitioners. Our conclusions indicate that physicians seem to be open minded in their views on financing. Their overriding concerns are to ensure the provision of sufficient resources to the healthcare system and to maintain full coverage of the population.