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Primary Care at Athens District Family Health Team

The Athens District Family Health Team (FHT), located within the South East LHIN, serves 3,500 rostered and 300 unrostered patients. In November 2008, the team was experiencing a wait time of 27 days, as measured by the time to the third next available appointment. As a result, the registered nurse had to do telephone triage to fit patients into an already doublebooked schedule or offer telephone advice. Long wait times meant the practice’s receptionists also experienced stress, fielding a steady stream of calls from anxious patients (OHQC Quality Monitor, 2010).

The Athens District FHT was one of the featured success stories in the 2010 Ontario Health Quality Council Yearly Report – read more to learn about how they were able to address their wait time challenges.

September 8, 2010
Coming

With the goal of maximizing the purchasing power of FHTs regardless of their size or location, AFHTO established a Commercial Advisory Council (CAC). An AFHTO survey had found that FHTs were interested in accessing a range of quality goods and services at discounted prices and/or with other benefits. CAC’s role has been to develop a fair and transparent process for working with vendors in order to make recommendations to the AFHTO board on establishing contractual arrangements with suppliers of goods and services at discounted rates and/or with other benefits for AFHTO members. As of November 2010, CAC has completed its pilot test of the process with a small number of vendors. Contractual arrangements are now in discussion, and the first vendor recommendations are expected to be ready by January 2011. CAC will then proceed to use the process to vet additional vendor proposals. CAC is chaired by Keri Selkirk, ED of Thames Valley FHT. Members are: Jay Graydon (Business Manager, Hamilton FHT), Fran Moore (Business Manager, North Perth and North Huron FHTs) and Valerie Smith (Executive Director, Barrie and Community FHT). Additional AFHTO members who may be interested in participating in CAC are welcome to send an e-mail to keri.selkirk@thamesvalleyfht.ca.

September 1, 2010
Key Issues
AFHTO has served as the forum for sharing FHT issues, concerns, and ideas, and formulating policy statements and recommendations to the government. The November 2009 FHT Leaders Retreat is an excellent example of collective idea-sharing and problem-solving: it achieved remarkable consensus on the most pressing issues for FHT success. The following March AFHTO board members met with the Health Minister’s staff and exchanged correspondence with Minister Deb Matthews. The Minister’s Office welcomes AFHTO as a credible advocacy voice for FHTs and will ensure on-going communications. The Ministry’s Primary Health Care branch has committed to meet regularly. Our August meeting began to deal with our most pressing issues. Coming out of that meeting, we heard the Ministry’s commitment to:
- Explore possible improvements to speed up the process to get FHT budgets approved;
- Work with individual FHTs that are experiencing cash flow problems to flow funds at the beginning of the month, rather than at the end;
- Work with a small group of FHT Executive Directors to find solutions to problems with financial reporting systems. This work is actively in progress;
- Consider the question of funding for travel and education for northern FHTs, in line with what is provided to other northern health organizations;
- Provide an opportunity for AFHTO to comment on an Ontario Telemedicine Network support policy that is in development; and
- Receive a proposal from AFHTO to develop and support FHT governance and strategic planning, and for cost-effective training to meet legislated obligations such as workplace health and safety, for potential project funding.
AFHTO continues to participate in the Ministry’s FHT Action Group, together with representatives from other associations representing the various health professions working within FHTs. This, along with additional contacts by board members with other organizations, has enabled AFHTO to establish and nurture relationships with organizations such as the Quality Improvement and Innovation Partnership (QIIP), the Ontario College of Family Physicians, the Association of Ontario Health Centres and others.
August 31, 2010
D2D interactive report – for testing purposes only – password-protected

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August 23, 2010
Creating Good Governance in FHTs – Spring 2010 survey results

In the spring of 2010, AFHTO and QIIP collaborated to find out how FHTs were progressing in developing their governance structures and their understanding of the different roles and responsibilities of individuals that have been charged with the leadership of their FHTs. Governing boards of health care organizations, including Family Health Teams, are accountable for the performance of their organization and to provide oversight on their decisions. On April 20th, 2010, an email was sent out to all FHT leaders in the province inviting them to participate in a survey to inform if there is a need for further education in the field of governance. By the May 14th, 2010 deadline,115 respondents from 59 different FHTs responded. Click here to see the survey results.

May 20, 2010
Patient Contact Resources
As you are probably aware, the new FHT contract, which came into effect on April 1, 2018, requires that teams “make reasonable efforts to ensure the option of email communications is available for patients.” To help you with this, AFHTO has partnered with Cliniconex and Cognisant MD (Ocean) to make their patient contact systems available to your team at a discount. These packages are available on a first-come, first-served basis. See below for details.

Cliniconex

Cliniconex is a patient-reminder system that integrates with your EMR and can be used to send emails or make automated phone calls to patients. AFHTO members can get free installation of Cliniconex (a $500 value) and 1,000 free transactions. In order to access this, your team must commit to:
- Using the 1,000 free transactions to send out the Patient Perceptions of Patient-Centeredness (PPPC) survey to at least 1000 patients
- Purchasing an additional 1000 transactions from Cliniconex at a discounted price of $350
The following resources will help you get started:
- FHT Privacy Checklist for Cliniconex [downloads a Word document]
- Information Flow Explanation of Cliniconex Survey Service [PDF]
- Cliniconex Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) [PDF]
- Sample subscription agreement with recommended changes [downloads a Word document]
- 2-page Cliniconex information brochure [PDF]
Ocean tablets by Cognisant MD

Ocean tablets are a patient engagement system that integrates with your EMR and can be used for patient feedback surveys, appointment reminders, and more. AFHTO members can get [XXX]. In order to access this, your team must commit to:
- [XXX]
The following resources will help you get started:
- FHT Privacy Checklist for Ocean [downloads a Word document]
- Ocean Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) FAQ [PDF]
- Ocean Network Diagrams for Tablets [PDF]
March 28, 2010

List of Primary Care Reports and Reporting Platforms

Report Name – Link to Description (Below)	Organization	Report Website – Link (External)	For more information, contact:
Data to Decisions (D2D)	AFHTO	Link to Website	carol.mulder@afhto.ca
Non-Operational Reporting and Analytics (NORA)	AOHC	Link to Website	mark@aohc.org
Data Presentation Tool (DPT)	CPCSSN	Link to Website	johnaqueenan@gmail.com
Data Safe Haven	UTOPIAN	Link to Website	dfcm.utopian@utoronto.ca
Screening Activity Report (SAR)	CCO	Link to Website	screenforlife@cancercare.on.ca
Your Health System – Ontario	CIHI	Link to Website	HSP@cihi.ca
myPractice (formerly Primary Care Practice Report)	HQO	Link to Website	practicereport@hqontario.ca
Quality Improvement Plans (QIP Navigator)	HQO	Link to Website	QIP@HQOntario.ca
EMR Administrative Data Linked Database (EMRALD)	ICES	Link to Website	emrald@ices.on.ca
EMR Physician Dashboard Proof-of-Concept	OntarioMD	Link to Website	EMRdashboard@ontariomd.com
Health Data Branch Portal	MOHLTC	Link to Website	DDMSupport@ontario.ca

Data to Decisions (D2D)

AFHTO’s Data to Decisions is a compilation of voluntary data contributed by AFHTO members, based on a small number of measures chosen by AFHTO members. ee how D2D aligns with system and practice priorities here.

D2D Data Dictionary
Contact: mulder@afhto.ca

Non-Operational Reporting and Analytics (NORA) and Business Intelligence Reporting Tools (BIRD)

AOHC’s Non-Operational Reporting and Analytics (NORA) work stream aims to give member centres a holistic view of their operations by consolidating key data and presenting it in an integrated and easy-to-analyze manner. NORA is powered by the Business Intelligence and Reporting Tool (BIRT) Solution, a bilingual, centrally-hosted system that gathers data and enables robust data analysis using business intelligence tools.

Contact mark@aohc.org

CPCSSN Data Presentation Tool (DPT)

CPCSSN is a primary care research initiative—the first pan-Canadian multi-disease electronic medical record surveillance system. CPCSSN collects health information from electronic medical records in the offices of participating primary care providers (e.g. family physicians). The Data Presentation Tool is an EMR-linkable software application that produces sentinel feedback reports for various CPCSSN networks across Canada.

Regional networks for Ontario:

Deliver Primary Healthcare Information (DELPHI) Project The Eastern Ontario Network (EON) McMaster University Sentinel and Information Collaboration (MUSIC) University of Toronto Practice-Based Research Network (UTOPIAN)
CPCSSN Data Dictionary
Contact johnaqueenan@gmail.com or marissab@cpcssn.org

UTOPIAN Data Safe Haven

University of Toronto Practice-Based Research Network (UTOPIAN) is one of the regional CPCSSN networks for Ontario. The UTOPIAN Data Safe Haven is a secure researchable database comprised of de-identified patient records extracted from electronic medical records (EMRs) in contributing primary care practices.

For those who would like to consider joining UTOPIAN http://www.dfcm.utoronto.ca/prospective-utopian-data-contributors
Contact utopian@utoronto.ca

Screening Activity Report (SAR)

CancerCare Ontario‘s Screening Activity Report (SAR) provides patient enrolment model (PEM) primary care physicians with a supplementary tool for improving their cancer screening rates and appropriate follow-up for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening.

Your Health System – Ontario

Your Health System – Ontario is an aggregate report published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

Your Health System – Ontario (aggregate report)
Login to submit data
Indicator Library
Contact: HSP@cihi.ca

MyPractice – Primary Care (formerly Primary Care Practice Report)

The Primary Care Practice Report (PCPR) is published by Health Quality Ontario (HQO), with data from the Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences (ICES).

Login to access your report (generated by ICES)
Indicator Library
Contact: practicereport@hqontario.ca

Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs)/QIP Navigator

Health Quality Ontario‘s QIP Navigator allows organizations to submit their annual Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs), provides tools and resources to develop an annual QIP, and includes a searchable database of all previously submitted QIPs.

Login to Submit, Query, or Download QIPs
Contact for help or information: QIP@HQOntario.ca

Electronic Medical Record Administrative data Linked Database (EMRALD)

EMRALD is a database housed at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) that consists of clinically relevant information derived from electronic medical records (EMRs) maintained by family physicians practicing in Ontario. These EMR data can be linked to administrative databases held at ICES. Time commitment is minimal and participation requires the signing of a data sharing agreement that allows EMRALD to collect your data.

Login to System for Audit and Feedback to Improve Care (SAFIRE) to view data
Data Dictionary (ICES)
Contact: emrald@ices.on.ca

Ontario MD EMR Physician Dashboard proof of concept

OntarioMD is leading an initiative that will demonstrate improvement in the clinical value of EMRs through an EMR Physician Dashboard Proof of Concept which:

provides a framework for real-time access to an introductory set of high-value provincial indicators
Associates high-value indicators with data quality of the underlying elements
Is provincially scalable and can be easily expanded

Frequently Asked Questions
Contact: EMRdashboard@ontariomd.com

Health Data Branch (HDB) Portal

The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) Health Data Branch Portal allows healthcare providers to access a number of aggregate reports on health system indicators:

Login or sign up
Contact: DDMSupport@ontario.ca.

January 15, 2009

D2D 6.0 Special Data Input – Password Protected

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September 24, 2008