ABSTRACT
Canadian Public Health Inspectors (PHI) must adapt to changes in their working environment. The spectrum of PHI duties in many provinces has expanded and become less uniform across provinces. Traditional roles have disappeared in Quebec. Possible futures are discussed along with the educational options available. The two major employment futures are either to concentrate on working within the public health team or to seek to become competitive in areas outside of traditional public health. The public health option is recommended. Education can be as a generalist or a specialist, with specialization occurring before or after graduation.
Subject(s)
Allied Health Personnel/education , Education, Medical , Public Health/education , Allied Health Personnel/trends , Forecasting , Humans , Public Health/trends , Quality Control , QuebecSubject(s)
Governing Board , Hospital Planning , Canada , Decision Making, Organizational , Social ChangeABSTRACT
The direct costs of screening for congenital dislocation of the hip (CDH) are compared with the treatment costs resulting from no screening in a cost-effectiveness analysis in British Columbia. Under certain conditions the costs associated with screening and subsequent conservative treatment for 6 to 15 positive cases of CDH/1000 liveborn infants were considerably lower than the costs of either open or closed reduction of the hip for 1.5 infants with CDH per 1000 infants not screened. When adjustments were made to the assumptions about screening costs, rates with which cases were missed and hospital treatment costs, only the assumptions thought to be overly unfavourable to screening and overly optimistic for no screening brought the costs of no screening within the likely range of costs of screening. Some specific and general implications of the cost-effectiveness of screening for CDH in British Columbia are discussed.
