Staffing shortages forcing rural Sask. hospitals to reduce ER hours
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CBC
4 hours ago
- CBC
Home-care scheduling system faces criticism
A centralized system in Winnipeg for scheduling home-care visits has come under fire by clients and health-care workers. They're concerned it's leading to an increase in cancelled, delayed or poorly timed appointments.
CBC
5 hours ago
- CBC
How cities in northern Ontario solved their lifeguard shortage
After years of grappling with lifeguard shortages, several cities in northern Ontario say they've finally turned a corner, with fully staffed pools and supervised beaches this summer. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated lifeguard shortages across the country, leading some cities and town to scale back programming or leave certain waterfronts unsupervised. But cities like North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury say targeted changes, including free certification courses, boosted wages and changes to training have improved the situation in the last year. Rebuilding after the pandemic "We definitely noticed [the shortage] coming out of COVID. There was such a long period of time where we weren't able to operate," said Kendra MacIsaac, vice-president of health and wellness for the YMCA of northeastern Ontario. She said during the pandemic, many lifeguards found different jobs because they were unable to work and their certifications eventually expired. Due to that shortage, the YMCA's downtown Sudbury location had to reduce their schedule or close the pool on some occasions. In the last few years, MacIsaac said the YMCA of northeastern Ontario has worked tirelessly to run ongoing certification courses in order to recruit enough lifeguards to be able to run aquatic programs and services at pre-pandemic levels. Usually after years of swimming lessons, 13-year-olds can start the lifeguard certification process by taking the bronze medallion and emergency first aid course. After that they can immediately take the bronze cross certification course, standard first aid and CPR ahead of the national lifeguard certification at 15 years old. In 2023, the provincial government lowered the age requirement for lifeguards to address the staffing shortages across Ontario. MacIsaac said that made a "big difference." But she said maintaining interest between swim lessons and lifeguard certifications is still a challenge. "There's often a gap when kids stop lessons and aren't quite old enough for bronze medallion," MacIsaac said. To bridge that, the YMCA is offering junior lifeguard clubs and other leadership programs to keep kids engaged between the ages of 10 and 13. Various strategies For the first time in several years, the City of North Bay's supervised beaches are fully staffed. "In recent years, only two of the three beaches were staffed due to the widespread shortage of lifeguards," said a city spokesperson in a statement to CBC News. "The City of North Bay has had a full complement of lifeguards across all three of its supervised beaches — Shabogesic Beach on Lake Nipissing, as well as The Cove and Olmsted Beach on Trout Lake." To address this shortage, in 2024 North Bay raised the hourly wage for lifeguards from the provincial minimum of $17.20 per hour to $19.50. The city says it has also benefited from the temporary closure of its indoor pool at the North Bay YMCA, allowing more certified guards to work outdoors. Sault Ste. Marie has seen similar success. The city's aquatic supervisor, Benjamin Ayton, said staffing levels have returned to what they were before the pandemic. "We're back to pre-COVID levels and we're doing all right, at least for the municipality," Ayton said. "Some of the summer camps are still having a hard time, but we've been trying to help them out by getting them certified people." To boost interest and lower financial barriers, the Sault began offering all bronze and advanced lifeguard courses for free. Even when only a few people signed up, Ayton said, the city made sure the courses still ran. "Even though not everyone would go on to work for us, we did offer all these courses for free and that really helped our area," he said. Greater Sudbury isn't currently facing a lifeguard shortage affecting their programming, according to Jessica Watts, manager of recreation with the city. She explained that as COVID-19 restrictions eased, the city returned to offering advanced life guarding certification courses. "We can train people more regularly and have them prepared to qualify for those lifeguard positions to build internal capacity and reduce reliance on external instructors," Watts said. "We also started training our own staff to teach those more advanced levels, which allowed us to deliver those advanced courses in house." Both Ayton and MacIsaac said life guarding is a public safety service that plays a critical role in preventing drownings and ensuring access to water-based recreation. "Most of our job is prevention," Ayton said. "It's not a pleasant experience to have to deal with [an emergency] situation like that, but you do the best you can and it is rewarding when you are able to assist."
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
UnitedHealth falls short of second quarter expectations and offers weak outlook for 2025
The logo for UnitedHealth Group appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, file) UnitedHealth delivered disappointing second-quarter earnings and went conservative with its 2025 forecast as soaring medical costs continue to swamp insurers. The health care giant said Tuesday expenses that have jumped beyond what it expected when it set coverage prices will continue to pressure its performance. But the company expects a return to earnings growth in 2026. UnitedHealth now expects adjusted earnings of at least $16 per share in 2025 after withdrawing its previous forecast in May. It had started 2025 with expectations of making up to $30 per share. For the full year, analysts forecast earnings of $20.64 per share, according to the data firm FactSet. UnitedHealth Group Inc. runs one of the nation's largest health insurance and pharmacy benefits management businesses. The Eden Prairie, Minnesota, company also operates a growing Optum business that provides care and technology support. In May, the company withdrew its 2025 forecast due to higher-than-expected medical costs, and CEO Andrew Witty departed the company abruptly. He was replaced by Chairman Stephen Hemsley, who was the UnitedHealth CEO for more than a decade until 2017. That came after the company took the rare step in April of cutting its forecast. That pushed UnitedHealth shares down $130 in its worst single-day performance in over 25 years. Hemsley promised in June that UnitedHealth would establish a 'prudent' 2025 earnings outlook when it detailed second-quarter results. He also said the company had underestimated care activity and cost trends, but improvements were being made. In the second quarter, UnitedHealth reported adjusted earnings of $4.08 per share on $111.6 billion in total revenue. Analysts expected earnings of $4.48 per share on $111.5 billion in revenue, according to FactSet. The company's profit fell 19% to $3.41 billion even as revenue rose 13%. Medical costs, the company's biggest operating expense, jumped 20% to $78.6 billion in the quarter. UnitedHealth is normally the first insurer to report earnings every quarter. But this summer, it followed competitors like Elevance Health Inc. and Centene Corp. that have lowered their annual forecasts and delivered disappointing results. Several insurers say they have been hit by medical costs that are growing faster than expected. Companies have seen a rise in expensive emergency rooms visits and growing prescription drug costs, especially from expensive cancer treatments and gene therapy. They've also seen a rise in behavioral health care, which includes the treatment of mental health conditions and substance use disorders. UnitedHealth shares slid about more than 3% to $272.30 before the opening bell Tuesday. That price topped $630 last November to reach a new all-time high. But the stock has mostly shed value since December, when UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in midtown Manhattan on his way to the company's annual investor meeting. Shares are down 44% so far this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, of which UnitedHealth is a member, has climbed 5%. Tom Murphy, The Associated Press
