In this episode, Kyla sits down with Dr. Brittany Ellis — an emergency physician with specialized training in geriatric emergency medicine — for a wide-ranging conversation about why Canada's emergency departments are in crisis, and why older adults are bearing the brunt of it.

Dr. Ellis walks us through the full patient journey: from an older adult struggling
to get home care in a timely way, to ending up in an ED hallway for days,
developing pressure ulcers within the first hour, experiencing delirium, and
leaving the hospital in worse shape than they arrived. It's a cascade of
failures across a fragmented system — and she breaks it down with clarity,
urgency, and a healthy dose of "delusional optimism."

Resources

• CIHI: Emergency Department Wait Times in Canada — Insights from a Health System Perspective
• CAEP Position Statement: Care of Older People in Canadian Emergency Departments
• What’s behind Canada’s Doctor Shortage?

Canada has expanded the legal options available at the end of life — but the conversations with patients and families haven't kept up.

In this episode, Kyla talks with Dr. Janine Brown, nurse researcher and PhD at the University of Saskatchewan, and Nabila Ashraf, public health researcher and Master's student in Aging Studies at the University of Regina. Together, they've been studying the social and political conditions that shape how Canadians navigate end-of-life decisions — from MAID to palliative care to the systemic gaps that make these conversations harder than they need to be.

We discuss why good end-of-life care keeps hitting the same walls — and what it would take to change that.

If you work in healthcare, policy, or simply believe Canadians deserve better conversations about dying, this one is for you.

Resources

MAID Overview (Health Canada)

MAID Saskatchewan

Care Conversations with Dr. Janine Brown

End of Life Conversations Research Paper

Advanced Care Planning Kit

Yellow Sleeve Program

End of Life Planning Guide and Checklist

Parliamentary Report on MAID and Mental Illness

In this episode, Kyla sits down with Dr Ginger Ruddy, a family physician and consultant with the Saskatchewan Medical Association, to break down what a patient medical home actually is, why the traditional fee-for-service model is holding us back, and what the future of primary care could look like for every person in this province. From Swift Current's same-day access model to the barriers of union integration and funding gaps, this is a frank conversation about the shift that's already underway — and what it will take to get there for everyone.

Also, tune in at the end for another Shift Shout Out where we highlight an innovation from a nurse practitioner in Toronto who is reducing falls in hospitals and long-term care facilities across Canada with her innovative technology.

Resources

· Crowfoot Family Practice, Calgary

· Advancing Patient Medical Home: Insights from Swift Current

· Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) —

· Innovation Fund

· HALO Article (October 2025)

· UHN Inventor of the Year

· HALO Website

In this episode, we sit down with Angela Sereda, a senior leader in Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) with Medavie West, to discuss the shift happening in paramedicine. Angela shares her 33-year journey from a high school athletic trainer to a leader in community-based paramedicine. We explore how paramedics are expanding their role from being a purely reactive 911 service to becoming a proactive, integrated part of the healthcare system—meeting people where they’re at with the services they need.

If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe, share with friends and/or leave a review. You can also follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn by searching @shiftpodcastcanada for more stories about transforming healthcare in Canada

Resources & Links

Medavie Video

Promising Practice: Medavie Community Paramedicine (Report from Health Excellence Canada)

Medavie Integrated health

Medavie Integrated Care Facility Programs

Withdrawal Management

Hospital at Home (Vancouver)

In this episode, we explore an unlikely but powerful partnership between Terry Kostyna, a "get-shit-done" (GSD) entrepreneur and small-town mayor, and Dr. Jacob Al Hassan, an academic researcher focused on health equity. Together, they discuss their work with the Health Quality Council’s "Thrive at Home" initiative, specifically focusing on how rural communities can innovate to provide sustainable transportation for seniors. From volunteer-run shuttles to specialized software, Terry and Jacob share how they are working to bridge the gap between research and action to ensure older adults can age in place with dignity.

Resources

• Health Quality Council's Thrive at Home Initiative
• A Call for a Transportation Strategy
• Prince George's Social Prescribing Initiative
• Drive Happiness (Alberta)
• Gravelbourg Cares Shuttle

In this episode, I sit down with John Mortimer, a specialist in systemic service design and founder of Impro, to tackle a concept that is silently draining the resources and morale of our health care system: Failure Demand. John explains that much of the "spinning" felt by practitioners today—the feeling of running faster while staying in the same place—is the result of a system designed to manage the consequences of its own failures rather than meeting the actual needs of the person.

If you have ever felt that you or your organization is only as helpful as the rules allow, this conversation offers ideas for finding traction in the spin and eliminating the invisible drain of failure demand.

Resources

John’s Videos on YouTube

Buurtzorg Model

Human Learning Systems

Recorded just twenty-four hours before Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR)—formerly known as AIDS Saskatoon—officially closed its doors on April 9, 2026, this episode features a deep dive conversation with social worker and advocate Erin Beckwell. Erin shares her decade-long history with AIDS Saskatoon, starting from its roots as a community-led response to the HIV crisis to its evolution into a vital institution that provided life-saving services in the community. As you will hear, Erin and her co-workers were doing Relational Service long before it even had a name.

In this timely conversation, we explore what it means to lead with a health equity lens, the frustrations of working in a huge bureaucracy, and the opportunity to do change approaches when we think outside the health care box.

Resources

Prairie Harm Reduction (formerly AIDS Saskatoon)

Wellness Wheel Clinic (Regina)

University Health Network Housing Model

Video: How Public Policy Creates Poverty with Colleen Christopherson-Cote

This Week's Shift Shout Out:

Trillium Heath Partners AI Challenge

In this episode, I sit down with two of Saskatchewan’s most experienced health care leaders, Dan Florizone and Marlene Smadu, to explore a fundamental crisis in leadership: why we continue to treat an infinite system like a “finite game."

Drawing on their decades of experience—from pioneering "Magnet" hospital environments in the late 90s to their current work teaching excellence in health leadership—Dan and Marlene discuss the urgent need to shift away from "command and control" culture brought in by the militaristic and religious structures of the 20th century. They reflect on how the modern health care system is often trapped by finite thinking, where leaders are pressured by four-year election cycles to "win" short-term battles like surgical wait-time targets, often at the expense of the long-term sustainability of the workforce and the system itself.

We also discuss the power of the public and the direct care workforce as the greatest untapped resources for change. Marlene emphasizes that we have a well-educated public and 44,000 staff members who are "bursting to participate" if only they are given an invitation and a "North Star" to follow. While the administrative and logistical challenges are significant, both guests leave us with a message of deep hope, noting that the clinical breakthroughs and the "Patient First" shift in the last decade have been significant.

This episode is a call to action for leaders at every level to embrace humility, curiosity, and transparency to build a health care system that is not just fit for the next election, but fit for the next century.

Resources:

The Infinite Game – Simon Sinek

Excellence in Healthcare Leadership Program

Kouzes & Posner Leadership Model

Berkana Two Loops Model

Raise Her Community

Industrial Disease