Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, so expect to see major innovations in health care in the years to come.
That鈥檚 the message Interior Health CEO Chris Mazurkewich and board chairman Erwin Malzar, brought to 91大黄鸭 city council Monday, as part of the Imagine 91大黄鸭 speaker series.
Mazurkewich told council that elderly, frail people who are in institutions or require extensive
at-home care are already a significant expense for Interior Health. If that trend carries on, when the baby boomers hit their final days and the service model doesn鈥檛 evolve, the cost could be crippling.
鈥淏asically, four per cent of the (current) population requires about 41 per cent of the services IH provides,鈥 said Mazurkewich.
The plus-75 age group is 10 per cent of the Central Okanagan population, according to the health authority鈥檚 figures. In 2040, it projects that population will have grown to 14 per cent.
If the proportion of people needing extra care maintains at four per cent, the cost of health care on taxpayers will balloon.
In fact, the current $2-billion budget for Interior Health is expected to nearly triple by 2040.
There are a variety of ways health authorities across the province will have to change in the years to come to get ahead of that alarming trend鈥攁nd some might already be in the palm of your hand.
鈥淗ealth apps are only getting better and better and better,鈥 said Mazurkewich. 鈥淥ur physicians these days, they communicate with iPhones, they send X-rays by iPhones, and all those kinds of things. That鈥檚 only going to improve.鈥
As that improves, he said, it only makes sense that the patient component will follow.
鈥淚f you think from a health monitoring perspective, what can we monitor at home?鈥 he said. 鈥淚 think of my mom, who is 86鈥 I would love to have the tools at her place that we could monitor her activity. I know she鈥檚 fallen and lain there for four to five hours at a time.鈥
If monitoring tools were in place, they could have helped her more quickly.
Of course, technology would extend beyond merely watching.
鈥淲e have virtual physician offices already in 91大黄鸭,鈥 he said. 鈥淒o I really have to go to a physician鈥檚 office? I talk to my kids by FaceTime and Skype. Do I have to see a physician face-to-face every time?鈥
Those face-to-face meetings require transportation and parking, and it would be both cheaper and simpler to create electronic meetings.
鈥淚 think in 2040, that鈥檚 going to happen,鈥 Mazurkewich said. 鈥淭here are certain things you have to be there for in person, but most physician visits are a five-minute involvement and you don鈥檛 have to be there in person.鈥
Coun. Mohini Singh questioned whether seniors of the future would be keen on losing their in-person doctor visits, noting she can鈥檛 imagine going online for such a thing.
People, Mazurkewich said, simply adapt. 鈥淲e hear that all the time,鈥 he said. 鈥淢y mother started using email at 80 so she could connect to her grandchildren. Now when one visits, she gets on FaceTime to call other grandchildren.鈥
He added the online visits would create more opportunity for family members to attend doctors appointments for their elderly loved ones, and that could make a big difference in treatment.
That said, treatment is also something that may change. 鈥淚 am old enough to remember Participaction,鈥 he said.
鈥淚 find it amazing that we know that eating, sleeping, exercising and having some friends are the best things you can do for yourself from a health care perspective,鈥 he said.
So there should be, going forward, a bigger emphasis on health promotion and prevention.
鈥淭he problem is that it takes 10 to 15 years to see a return, but the places that have done it have all seen a return,鈥 her said.
And, he said, 91大黄鸭 has enacted policies that will also help in those aims.
鈥淎ll of those pieces I see come together in 91大黄鸭, and I鈥檓 quite proud of 91大黄鸭 and the direction it鈥檚 been headed,鈥 he said.
The city鈥檚 Imagine 91大黄鸭 series focuses on future trends in topics such as employment, technology, climate change and health care.