I heard an interview with Peter Walker following York University’s release of plans to build a new medical school. CBC’s Matt Galloway kicked off the interview by suggesting a new medical school would be less effective than expanding existing facilities in the province. This may be valid question for someone who is removed from the health care system. Those in the system (professionals, patients and families) might have preferred a different lead-off. Walker’s answers, however, hit the right chords for me.

The response was much less about building capacity, than it was about changing the system. The new school will have hospitals working with the communities, and will also bring together “the variety of disciplines – including social workers, nutritionists, even business experts” (Globe and Mail article). In the same article Walker suggests the result “is going to change the system.”

One of the things that, I believe, slows and complicates change is the extent of “groups” that are historically entrenched in hospitals and health care as a whole. Any discipline has “us vs. them” orientations, but the combinations in the health care system are endless.

Much of the focus on my work in the health care area is on providing skills to recognize and overcome the in-group and out-group dynamics that develop. Ensuring interaction in a systematic manner will foster easier collaboration in the end. There is an interpersonal element beyond the system. Ignoring this can create/exacerbate tension and interpersonal noise caused when “us vs. them” groups come together.

Perhaps this is where the aforementioned “business experts” come into the equation. I would be interested to see if one of these experts is Schulich Business School’s (York University) Dr. Brenda Zimmerman. She is co-author of “Getting to Maybe,” which discusses change in complex systems. If so, this projects appears to have tremendous potential to bring necessary change to Ontario’s health care system.

Tags: Tags: Brenda Zimmerman, Health Care Reform, Ontario, York University —

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