Leslie Worthington - Apostle of quality health care

Just over two years ago, on October 29, 2003, Leslie came with her family to bring her father to the emergency room at Concordia Hospital. For a whole variety of reasons, Leslie was very concerned about the care provided to her father. A critical clinical occurrence review team looked at this situation and provided ten recommendations. But, the recommendations have not been fully implemented. On October 13, on CJOB, on Richard Cloutier's show, Leslie had a chance to push Dr. Rob Robson, chief patient safety officer with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority on why the recommendations had not been implemented.

The transcript of the conversations on CJOB follows:

Richard Cloutier: "mistakes were made that's been acknowledged, recommendations were made that's been acknowledged. Why's it so tough to implement them?"

Dr. Rob Robson: "... we can review a situation, we can make recommendations, and yet it can still be difficult to get them put in place."

Richard Cloutier: "she [Leslie Worthington] says because they [Concordia Hospital] do not fall technically within the WRHA they are not bound by these recommendations.

Dr. Rob Robson: "On a technical level, that's correct, Concordia is an independent facility... as I explained to Leslie I am not in a position to force somebody to do something, because there isn't that direct linkage there, it's a fact of life, I can't change that."

Richard Cloutier: "Who do we hold accountable?

Dr. Rob Robson: "When we have a complex system I guess we are all somewhat accountable."

Leslie does not believe a "somewhat accountable" system is good enough. She is working hard to improve the accountability so that other people can get better treatment than her father received.