Nurses’ president asks VIHA to hit pause on CDMR

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Nurses’ president asks VIHA to hit pause on CDMR - calls for independent review

July 26, 2013

Nurses’ president asks VIHA president to hit pause on patient care delivery changes and agree to independent expert review

VIHA’s lack of evidence in addressing patient safety issues continues to concern nurses as CDMR program expands

Vancouver Island Health Authority’s (VIHA) failure to present credible evidence or address nurses’ concerns regarding its controversial Care Delivery Model Redesign (CDMR) have prompted BCNU President Debra McPherson to formally request VIHA halt the scheme and agree to an independent expert review.

“We’re requesting that VIHA halt implementation of a scheme that cuts costs by replacing licensed nurses with care aides, so that experts can review the model for its potential impacts on patient safety,” says McPherson in a July 26th letter to VIHA President Dr. Brendan Carr.

“I’m not aware of any peer-reviewed research that fully evaluates CDMR,” says McPherson. “That’s why I’m calling on you [Dr. Carr] to release the time-and-motion studies, and any other evaluations you may have, of this controversial patient care model.”

Despite widespread concern voiced by nurses about the implications of CDMR, VIHA is charging ahead without presenting evaluations or addressing the patient safety issues to which nurses are pointing.

Already in Nanaimo 26 RNs and LPNs are being replaced by care aides in medical, surgical, transition and rehab units. Plans to spread CDMR to the south island area are underway as VIHA has now notified BCNU that 12 sites at RJH (Royal Jubilee Hospital) and 11 sites at VGH (Victoria General Hospital) will also be targeted for the cost-cutting scheme.

“If you want nurses and the general public to accept that patient safety isn’t being placed at risk, then why not make your evidence available?” asks McPherson. “The real question is quickly becoming, what is VIHA hiding?”

As of last week, nurses have gone public with a petition calling on VIHA to put implementation on hold, agree to an independent expert review, and make all studies and data public. To date well over two thousand Vancouver Island citizens have signed up in support of nurses’ concerns for safe care.

For further information contact:
Debra McPherson, BCNU President 604-209-4253
David Cubberley, BCNU Communications 604 992-9226

_________________________________________________________________

July 26, 2013

Dr. Brendan Carr
Acting CEO and President
Vancouver Island Health Authority,
1952 Bay Street, Victoria, BC V8R 1J8

Re: Care Delivery Model Redesign

Dear Dr. Carr,

I am formally requesting that VIHA put the implementation of its controversial patient-care model on hold, pending an independent expert review to evaluate its impacts on patient safety. I am also asking, on behalf of nurses, their patients and the general public, that you agree to disclose any data and evaluative studies that support Dr. Stevenson’s claim that CDMR “not only improves patient care, it enhances the work environment” (letter to Debra McPherson, May 9, 2013). It’s difficult to comprehend how replacing licensed and regulated nurses with care aides, thereby reducing access to point-of-care nursing, can be seen as improving care. Nurses believe that it may, in fact, place patient safety at greater risk, and they want to see the evidence VIHA claims to have substantiating that it does not.

Whatever steps VIHA says it’s taking to reassure nurses about CDMR, they remain alarmed by the potential risk to safe staffing and quality care. This is not, as CDMR director Robyne Maxwell said, (Nanaimo Daily News, May 3, 2013) a matter of nurses resisting change because they’re feeling “emotional.” Rather, it’s an appropriate professional response concerning the implications of a change that poses a risk to patient safety. Nurses are educated to put patient safety first and that means first and foremost safe staffing. It is my view that VIHA’s CDMR model is moving in the wrong direction.

I am not aware of any peer-reviewed research that fully evaluates CDMR. That’s why I am calling on you to release the time-and-motion studies, and any other evaluations you may have, of this controversial patient-care model. If you want nurses and the public to accept that patient safety isn’t being placed at risk, then why not make your evidence available? In the absence of your disclosure of adequate proof to support your claims of improved care, the real question is quickly becoming, what is VIHA hiding? Secretive behaviour can only undermine your efforts to implement change.

Once again, I’m calling on you to halt implementation of this controversial care-model in order to allow for a full and independent review of its impacts on patient safety.
Yours truly,

Debra McPherson
BCNU President

For more information contact:
David Cubberley
Phone: 604-992-9226

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