A Summary Report of Site Visits to Selected Community-Based Health Organizations in Canada

Companion document of Building a Stronger Foundation: A Framework for Planning and Evaluating Community-Based Services in Canada

Margaret I. Wanke¹, L. Duncan Saunders¹, R. Pong², W. John B. Church¹, Paul Cappon²

Prepared for the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health through the Advisory Committee on Health Human Resources
1995

¹ Healthcare Quality and Outcomes Research Centre
Department of Public Health Sciences
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta

² Northern Health Human Resources Research Unit
Laurentian University
Sudbury, Ontario

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Full Report (126KB)

Introduction

Site visits to selected organizations were undertaken as part of a larger initiative involving the development of a planning and evaluation framework for community-based health services (CBHSs) in Canada. The framework project, commissioned by the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Advisory Committee on Health Human Resources and approved by the Deputy Ministers of Health, is intended to support community-based health care reform activities in Canadian jurisdictions at different stages of reform and with different health priorities. The main focus of the initiative is on health human resources management.

The site visits were undertaken to supplement the findings of two systematic literature reviews on health human resource management in and organizational models for community-based health services. At the outset of the project, it was expected that the existing literature on these two issues would contain significant gaps and limitations. It was, therefore, considered important to complement the available empirical evidence by incorporating the information and recommendations provided by those individuals across Canada who possess first-hand experience in the provision of community-based health services.

The main purpose of the site visits was to solicit information about what human resource management strategies and organizational characteristics are effective in achieving the intended outcomes of community-based health services. The outcomes of interest were: quality of care, economic efficiency, equity, consumer and community empowerment and quality of worklife.