Alberta
True crime podcast “I Dodged a Bullet” tells incredible story of Sylvan Lake’s Randy Safronovich
“I guess I will write a book called I dodged a bullet twice now.”
The name Randy Safronovich has a familiar ring in Central Alberta.
Twice the Sylvan Lake man has escaped attempts on his life; once in 1998 and again in 2013. His incredible story, “I Dodged a Bullet”, is featured here in the new podcast series Crime Beat.
Nancy Hixt – host of Crime Beat Podcast
The podcast is hosted by Nancy Hixt, a former RDTV reporter in Red Deer, and for the past 2 decades, crime reporter with Global TV Calgary.
On this episode of Crime Beat, Hixt takes you through the mind blowing twists and turns in the life of Sylvan Lake’s Randy Safronovich’s.
The Sylvan Lake businessman was the victim of a home invasion robbery in June 2013.
At one point, the offender put a gun to his head, and pulled the trigger.
By some miracle, the gun misfired and Safronovich survived. Safronovich jokes that he must have nine lives. It was a life-changing moment, but surprisingly, not the first time Safronovich managed to evade death.
“I guess I will write a book called I dodged a bullet twice now,” Safronovich told Global News.
Find out why the FBI was consulted for his case, in a real-life story that plays out more like a Hollywood film.
“Nancy does a remarkable job taking you deep inside real cases she has worked on to give a voice to the victims of these crimes in a way only someone who was actually there could give,” said Chris “Dunner” Duncombe, Director of Streaming and Podcasting for Corus Entertainment. “We are so excited to bring Curiouscast listeners Crime Beat.”
“These stories have left a lasting mark on my life,” said Hixt. “There are many things I witness and experience while covering a case, and the Crime Beat podcast allows me to share those extra details with you, with a full behind-the-scenes look at all the twists and turns.”
Nancy Hixt has received numerous awards throughout her career covering Alberta’s crime beat. She was the winner of the 2015 Ron Laidlaw Award for Continuing Coverage – National Television, the 2016 Canadian Screen Award for Best Local Reportage, as well as the 2018 Radio Television Digital News Association Edward R. Murrow Award in the large-market television category.
Twitter: @nancyhixt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyHixtCrimeBeat/
Email: [email protected]
From the Fraser Institute
On Monday, the Smith government announced that beginning next year it will change the way it funds surgeries in Alberta. This is a big step towards unlocking the ability of Alberta’s health-care system to provide more, better and faster services for the same or possibly fewer dollars.
To understand the significance of this change, you must understand the consequences of the current (and outdated) approach.
Currently, the Alberta government pays a lump sum of money to hospitals each year. Consequently, hospitals perceive patients as a drain on their budgets. From the hospital’s perspective, there’s little financial incentive to serve more patients, operate more efficiently and provide superior quality services.
Consider what would happen if your local grocery store received a giant bag of money each year to feed people. The number of items would quickly decline to whatever was most convenient for the store to provide. (Have a favourite cereal? Too bad.) Store hours would become less convenient for customers, alongside a general decline in overall service. This type of grocery store, like an Alberta hospital, is actually financially better off (that is, it saves money) if you go elsewhere.
The Smith government plans to flip this entire system on its head, to the benefit of patients and taxpayers. Instead of handing out bags of money each year to providers, the new system—known as “activity-based funding”—will pay health-care providers for each patient they treat, based on the patient’s particular condition and important factors that may add complexity or cost to their care.
This turns patients from a drain on budgets into a source of additional revenue. The result, as has been demonstrated in other universal health-care systems worldwide, is more services delivered using existing health-care infrastructure, lower wait times, improved quality of care, improved access to medical technologies, and less waste.
In other words, Albertans will receive far better value from their health-care system, which is currently among the most expensive in the world. And relief can’t come soon enough—for example, last year in Alberta the median wait time for orthopedic surgeries including hip and knee replacements was 66.8 weeks.
The naysayers argue this approach will undermine the province’s universal system and hurt patients. But by allowing a spectrum of providers to compete for the delivery of quality care, Alberta will follow the lead of other more successful universal health-care systems in countries such as Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland and create greater accountability for hospitals and other health-care providers. Taxpayers will get a much better picture of what they’re paying for and how much they pay.
Again, Alberta is not exploring an untested policy. Almost every other developed country with universal health care uses some form of “activity-based funding” for hospital and surgical care. And remember, we already spend more on health care than our counterparts in nearly all of these countries yet endure longer wait times and poorer access to services generally, in part because of how we pay for surgical care.
While the devil is always in the details, and while it’s still possible for the Alberta government to get this wrong, Monday’s announcement is a big step in the right direction. A funding model that puts patients first will get Albertans more of the high-quality health care they already pay for in a timelier fashion. And provide to other provinces an example of bold health-care reform.
Nadeem Esmail
Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
From the Montreal Economic Institute
Alberta’s move to fund acute care services through activity-based funding follows best practices internationally, points out an MEI researcher following an announcement made by Premier Danielle Smith earlier today.
“For too long, the way hospitals were funded in Alberta incentivized treating fewer patients, contributing to our long wait times,” explains Krystle Wittevrongel, director of research at the MEI. “International experience has shown that, with the proper funding models in place, health systems become more efficient to the benefit of patients.”
Currently, Alberta’s hospitals are financed under a system called “global budgeting.” This involves allocating a pre-set amount of funding to pay for a specific number of services based on previous years’ budgets.
Under the government’s newly proposed funding system, hospitals receive a fixed payment for each treatment delivered.
An Economic Note published by the MEI last year showed that Quebec’s gradual adoption of activity-based funding led to higher productivity and lower costs in the province’s health system.
Notably, the province observed that the per-procedure cost of MRIs fell by four per cent as the number of procedures performed increased by 22 per cent.
In the radiology and oncology sector, it observed productivity increases of 26 per cent while procedure costs decreased by seven per cent.
“Being able to perform more surgeries, at lower costs, and within shorter timelines is exactly what Alberta’s patients need, and Premier Smith understands that,” continued Mrs. Wittevrongel. “Today’s announcement is a good first step, and we look forward to seeing a successful roll-out once appropriate funding levels per procedure are set.”
The governments expects to roll-out this new funding model for select procedures starting in 2026.
* * *
The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.
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