Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 1, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Tories muzzle rent hounds by Alice Krueger legislature reporter some private collection agencies Are charging tenants of Lowin come Public housing As much As 24 per cent interest on rent a practice the Mani Toba government wants to the agencies Are hired by Manitoba housing to collect about in overdue rents each the agencies already get a Cut of Between 17 and 25 per cent of the collections they the matter came to Light in the legislature yesterday when nip housing critic mar Ianne Cerilli Transcona questioned the government about the interest newly appointed housing minister Jack Reimer said he was unaware of the but after he later confirmed one firm had in deed been tacking on interest of 24 per he said an order to cease and desist charging interest on any and All past due accounts went out april 20 when government officials first became aware of what was going but there not doing it any More and anything that has accumulated in regards to inter est accumulation has been for Reimer he say which com Pany was collecting or How much it but he said anyone who paid inter est can claim a to the Best of my knowl no one has come Back for any kind of rebate on so it have been that he but a single Mother of two on welfare said Shes still be ing hounded by a collection Agency that is demanding pay ment in full of plus 24 per cent the who asked that her name be said she was shocked to discover her arrears of about had ballooned to More than when the account was turned Over to Equi fax Canada fax for she said she had offered to pay the arrears in instal but they dont want to accept my payment they want payment in officials at Equi fax refused to inside Story Winnipeg free press d q june Boniface pans Hospital study efficiency rating dated official Bald Santin staff reporter Jack Litvack says Hes speechless and Bill Patmore be both men run hospitals in Winni but their institutions got very different assessments in a report re leased yesterday by the Manitoba Centre for health policy and Evalu weve said the same thing to Manitoba executive director of Concordia general said of the you cant treat us All the you have to consider our efficient Concordia was assessed to be the most efficient of Winnipeg seven and one of the most efficient in the Boniface general Hospital was judged the worst in Winnipeg and one of the worst in the province when it comes to Cost i just dont know How valid the study president of the report found that costs of Boniface and health sciences Cen the two teaching hospitals in the were grossly out of whack compared to other the study authors said they explain Why costs at the teaching hospitals were much adding that Issue should be the subject of another but Litvack said he doubts the based on 199192 and 199394 Are still valid or Rele Litvack said Boniface and Hsc have borne the Brunt of healthcare adding the bulk of the changes at those institutions occurred after the study weve eliminated More than 700 reducing our paid staff hours by per the length of patient stay has been reduced 20 per Litvack Patmore said the study is merely one of a string of such reports that have demonstrated the provinces across Leboard healthcare budget cuts have been Patmore said Concordia will use the most recent study to Tell the province to Stop cutting its we cant be expected to find any More dollars within our own organi Patmore any further reductions in funding would Lead to reduced patient Patmore said a study released by the Centre in december 1993 found Concordia had the shortest length of patient stay among Winnipeg Hospi a key Factor in determining Effi the assessment is a reflection of our Patmore we service a population of about people with 136 acute care weve had to be really weve had to be innovative and Cre As reported in yesterdays free the study found huge differences in Cost efficiency among Man Ken free press Patmore says not All hospitals should be treated the ther Boniface or Hsc Are As inefficient today As the report found them in 199192 and again in and he questions whether they were As inefficient then As the report the province said no funding cuts will be made based on the adding the authors will have to prove their analysis is its a research study and not All studies Are said John Deputy minister of analysis and interpretation is Al ways subject to review and this is just the nip health critic Dave Chomiak said the study was based on out dated data and Doest reflect the state of any of the provinces Hospi tals Tobas 76 hospitals and concluded that taxpayers could have saved million in 1992 if All hospitals were As efficient As the most frugal its All a question of interpret said John Vic Epresi Dent of health sciences there interpreting higher costs As a sign of inefficiency and saying nothing else is were not some of the differences might be inefficiency but there Are other explanations that they Haven been willing to con Litvack said Boniface and Hsc have decided to Analyse the findings to determine if they Are valid and still Litvack said he Doest believe i health Cost findings defended teaching hospitals expenses really Are out of study author says Bald Santin staff reporter the authors of a controversial healthcare study said their methods broke new ground in comparing the efficiencies of Hospital acute care opera Nora Lou Roos said the study which compared costs be tween hospitals of different were subjected to strict academic scrutiny before the results were re leased this has never been done in Manitoba Roos it has not been done in most Canadian prov we made very Clear these results Are very valid for whats going on in the system but Many Hospital officials Are questioning the study team members will present their findings to the Urban hospitals when they will also explain the methodology John vice president at the health sciences questioned whether All the differences could be factored out to ensure a valid com Parison Between some of the prov inces smallest hospitals and the largest i dont share the same level of Confidence in their Home Marian the Lead investigator for the study said the objectives were to determine if there were Cost differences among Hospi tals in treating patients and How important those differences the team used a patient Case Model devised at Yale University that used different categories of the team then did what no one else had done before developed weighting factors using up Odate costs considered if we hospitals will my patients Are sicker than every one therefore they Cost More Toca Refon Shanahan she said the weighting scheme accounted for the amount of Hospital resources devoted to each Type of As an Shanahan said a complicated Bon marrow trans Plant Case would Cost about 65 times the average Hospital Case the Cost of a Normal Newborn baby is about a Quarter of the average hos Pital further adjustments were made to account for other factors that could affect including very Long lengths of atypical deaths and costs that were excluded included those for operating emergency departments and outpatient clinics and educating medical in terns and Shanahan said the team started with 199192 data because when the project that was the most Complete set of data Home said its an accepted fact in the healthcare Community that teaching hospitals Are More expensive to run than Community Hospi although the study concedes that Shanahan said Winnipeg two teaching hospitals Are still too Shanahan said similar data from teaching hospitals in the United states found they were on average six per cent to 14 per cent More expensive than Community Winnipeg teaching hospitals still exceeded those she Home said the study team used selective research data to make the teaching hospitals look worse than they Home said research indicates there Are even greater differences in operating costs Between teaching hospitals and Community hospitals in the United adding those data were ignored by the study Home said the study team presented Only the worst Case financial scenario for the teaching we really dont have an axe to Roos we didst go into the we were interested to ensure the differences were John Deputy minister of said a preliminary draft of the report was Given to the province last december but added it was sent Back for revision because it Only included data from Wade said the government wanted the most recent data Avail adding the final version was Only presented about two weeks Roos said revising the report to in clude 199394 financial comparisons for Urban hospitals was possible in a Short period of time because the hard work had already been our biggest Job began four years ago figuring out How to do Roos now we can do it in two to three Shanahan said the study team is still compiling financial data on the Rural and Northern cover huge Range the Hospital Case mix i costing project examined i the efficiencies of All 76 hospitals across the province for the fiscal year the project grouped institutions according to Type teach major intermediate Small and Northern isolate the project used a weighted system to take into account differences related to the Type of such As patient Load and severity of and grouped institutions according to the project found the most efficient Hospital in Manitoba is the 11bed Vita and District health which had an average weighted Cost per Case of the least efficient Hospital is the five bed Snow Lake medi Cal nursing which had an average weighted Cost per Case of Grace and Concordia Gener Al hospitals Are very efficient relative to the other Urban Community where the costs ranged from four per cent to 35 per cent More the two teaching Boniface general and health sciences spent close to 55 per cent More than the Grace to provide care to Between 199192 and 1993 the efficiencies of these two institutions decreased even fur Northern hospitals were among the most expensive in the they account for less than one per cent of provincial Hospital among the major Rural Hospi the most efficient were Portage la Steinbach and Swan compared to costs at other major Rural hospitals were Between 21 and 38 per cent the most efficient group of hospitals was the intermediate Rural among hospitals at Neep Awa and Souris were the most costs of others in the same category ranged Between 11 and 27 per cent 3uybuilder Bonds now it pays to invest in Manitoba builder Bonds series 3 Are a guaranteed investment in Manitoba that will continue to provide a local source of funds to keep your province full guaranteed competitive interest rate adjustable semiannually available for As Little As five year term reserved exclusively for Manitoban interest payable or compounded for the term the Ore More when you spend on regular Price Home decor fabrics when you spend on regular Price Home decor fabrics save builder available at participating credit Crisses Trust 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