AFHTO’s Recommendations on the Optimal Configuration of the Quality Improvement Decision Support Specialist (QIDSS) Role were finalized after last night’s close of the membership feedback period. This morning AFHTO ED Angie Heydon and Senior Project Lead Clarys Tirel met with FHT Unit Manager Phil Graham and Program Manager Richard Yampolsky to discuss these recommendations.
The discussion was framed in terms of what the FHT Unit must accomplish, i.e.:
- Invest public dollars to improve better care/better value for money
- Make timely decisions about budget allocations (between Feb.21 – Mar.31)
- Ensure appropriate accountability for the funds and the results
- Optimize the capacity of the FHT sector as a whole.
Ministry response to the recommendations was very positive. From this discussion AFHTO offers advice to increase your chance of getting approval for your proposal:
- Priority will be given to partnerships. Find your partner(s), agree on who will be the employer and how the QIDSS will be shared, and make sure you all say this in your proposal.
- Priority will be given to building capacity for information management among those FHTs that are committed to doing this but need help.
- In the short-term the focus is on data standardization and cleansing, to be able to accurately identify patients in the roster and their conditions/risk factors. Over time this role will grow along the continuum of creating reports, supporting decision-making, process change and quality improvement.
- To get some ideas of what this entails, look at presentations from Queens FHT and North York FHT on their journeys to establish data discipline. Click here to access additional presentations from the AFHTO 2012 Conference on using data to improve care.
- For those FHTs that are more advanced, partner with FHTs that need help and describe how the QIDSS position will help spread capacity.
- Be as specific as you can be about what you aim to achieve with this position in the next year.
On March 31 the FHT Unit’s budget recommendations will move up through the Ministry review and approval process. Through April to June, the FHT Unit will follow up with the FHTs they’ve recommended to receive QIDSS positions, to flesh out the expectations to be specified in the final funding agreements, and to make sure there are appropriate MOUs in place among the proposed partners. Provincial level resources Once the operating plan submissions are in and the FHT-level review begins, the FHT Unit will assess the question of provincial level resources. The AFHTO report recommended 2 – 4 positions to:
- Foster coordination and collaboration among the local QIDSS resources, including orientation of new QIDSSs, leveraging knowledge, sharing lessons learned from across the partnerships.
- Develop deep specialization in specific EMRs in order to act as an “escalation point” for local QIDSS with challenging EMR specific questions and issues.
- Bring strong data analytical/epidemiological skills to support local QIDSS with complex analytical problems and to support projects such as indicator development.
- Assess the degree to which the QIDSS role has enhanced information management capacity across the FHT sector to support planning for continued capacity building.
The Ministry’s intent is to invite a FHT to house these provincial resources. Their work would be governed on behalf of all FHTs through an AFHTO-sponsored provincial committee structure. Through AFHTO, job descriptions for these positions and terms of reference for the committee structure will be developed. Thank you for the membership input and feedback Thank you to all who gave input to create the draft recommendations and those who gave feedback on the draft to help us finalize the report. The results of this membership consultation are summarized in the final appendix of the document. Click here to download the full report.