Data to Decisions What’s meaningful to you?

Register now for the webinar April 23, 2014, 12 pm to 1.30 pm EST 

Presentation slide deck

Data to Decisions 1.0: Advancing Primary Care (D2D 1.0) was launched on March 31, 2014. It is an opportunity to get an early start on sharing and reporting on those indicators that are most comparable, currently available and mean the most to you. Participation is completely voluntary – all AFHTO members are invited but NOT required to contribute data. AFHTO’s Indicators Working Group has reached an important milestone. Approximately 35 indicators have been shortlisted based on technical feasibility and availability. Now we need to know:

What’s meaningful to you?

The D2D 1.0 – What’s Meaningful to You? Webinar kicks off the voting process that will identify the top priorities. It is open to all members. It will provide you with additional background and give you an opportunity to learn more about indicator selection to date and the voting process—which starts immediately after the webinar.

Who should attend?

All members interested in learning more about D2D 1.0 and interested in sharing their feedback on the indicators that are most meaningful to them.

Registration details

Register now for D2D 1.0 What’s Meaningful to You?  taking place on April 23^rd 12 pm to 1.30 pm EST.

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And just a reminder, all AFHTO members are also invited to pre-register for our Political Action webinar – Tuesday, April 15, 4:00 – 5:00 PM Eastern time. Public Affairs consultant Patrick Nelson will join AFHTO President Keri Selkirk and ED Angie Heydon to:

• Give an overview of the current political landscape as it relates to primary care;
• Review AFHTO’s political action activities and responses to date;
• Share tips and techniques for making the most of your meetings with MPPs and candidates;
• Answer your questions and ensure you receive the support you need for your meetings.

This morning the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care announced plans to increase investments to community health infrastructure. Included in this announcement is the statement – “Ontario is also creating a dedicated Community Infrastructure Renewal Program that could also help community organizations such as Public Health Units, Family Health Teams and Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics with the cost of maintenance and deferred capital repairs.”  In the media conference the Minister noted the annual budget for this program would begin at $5 million for the next year and increase to $10 million annually in three years. No further details are available at this time. AFHTO will be connecting with the Minister’s Office to learn more about plans for implementing this program.

With a potential election on the horizon, now is the time to strengthen political support for interprofessional comprehensive primary care.  Regardless of which party forms the next government, our collective job is to ensure all politicians and candidates are well-educated on the value of interprofessional comprehensive primary care teams and the need for support to expand access, enhance value, and enable recruitment of the staff needed to deliver care. Learn more about this campaign and how you can participate in it. Pre-register to join us for our Political Action webinar – Tuesday, April 15, 4:00 – 5:00 PM Eastern time. Public Affairs consultant Patrick Nelson will join AFHTO President Keri Selkirk and ED Angie Heydon to:

• Give an overview of the current political landscape as it relates to primary care;
• Review AFHTO’s political action activities and responses to date;
• Share tips and techniques for making the most of your meetings with MPPs and candidates;
• Answer your questions and ensure you receive the support you need for your meetings.

AFHTO launched the province-wide “Better Care. Healthier Families. Best Value.” campaign in the Ontario Legislature on March 17^th – the 10-year anniversary of government’s announcement of Family Health teams. Following from that:

• You received an e-mail from us on March 27 or 28 asking you to meet with your local MPP(s) and candidates and equipping you with key messages and other materials for these meetings.  These were e-mailed on a riding-by-riding basis so that you could coordinate in ridings where there are multiple AFHTO members.
• AFHTO has mailed the “Better Care. Healthier Families. Best Value.” brochure to all MPPs.
• Last Thursday, AFHTO’s President Keri Selkirk and ED Angie Heydon met with the PC and NDP Health Critics, Christine Elliott and France Gélinas. While all parties support the general concept of interprofessional primary care, the key issue is to educate on the value of committing to further investment to expand access and enhance value while also enabling sufficient funding to recruit and retain staff.
• Keri and Angie are also scheduling meetings with key health policy advisors in all three parties.

With over 100 ridings in this province, your help is needed in this campaign, and AFHTO is here to help you. Many AFHTO members have cultivated strong relationships with their local politicians; others may welcome advice and support to strengthen political links. Please pre-register for the Building Political Support Webinar, April 15, 2014, 4:00 PM EDT, at:   https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1282647741528869121

The AFHTO Board is very pleased to announce D2D 1.0 — Data to Decisions: Advancing Primary Care— a summary presentation of member-selected indicators. We invite your participation in this exciting and ambitious initiative. What is Data to Decisions 1.0: Advancing Primary Care?

• D2D 1.0 is about getting started with the data that matter most. It will present a small number of indicators that are meaningful, comparable and currently available
• It will be an early report containing useful and meaningful data because is being defined by members’ priorities for measurement and quality improvement
• Participation in D2D 1.0 is completely voluntary – all members will be invited but NOT required to contribute data
• D2D 1.0 will help AFHTO advocate for and inform measurement in ways that make sense to interprofessional primary healthcare organizations
• The work is being led by the Indicators Working Group of the Quality Improvement Decision Support Steering Committee (QSC) and supported by Quality Improvement Decision Support  Specialists (QIDSS)
• D2D 1.0 is coming soon! The target delivery date is October 2014

How can I participate?

• D2D 1.0 will build on AFHTO member advice and input at each critical stage in its development including data readiness, extraction, report design and lessons learned
• Vote on the indicators: In late April, watch for and participate in the online survey (and possibly webinar) to select the short list of indicators to be included in D2D 1.0
• Contribute your data: Start the conversations within your team to get ready to contribute your data so you can see where you land among your peer teams when D2D 1.0 is released.

How do I find out more?

• Review the Frequently Asked Questions
• Connect with your QIDS Specialist – they are actively involved in this project and need your input!  Send comments, questions and suggestions to:
  • QIDS Provincial Lead (AFHTO) Carol Mulder carol.mulder@afhto.ca

With a budget expected in early May and the potential for an election this spring or summer, we need to ensure that MPPs, candidates and senior officials of all of the political parties are well-educated on the value of interprofessional comprehensive primary care teams, and the benefits of expanding access, enhancing value and enabling recruitment of the staff needed to deliver care. Last week AFHTO used the occasion of the 10^th Anniversary of the announcement of Family Health Teams to kick off our campaign, “Better Care. Healthier Families. Best Value.” As a result of our work, the Minister of Health also used the event to attribute much of their success in health care to the work being done by family care teams – FHTs, NPLCs and other interprofessional models — in Ontario. In the next week, we’ll meet with senior political officials to encourage them to make the expansion and enhancement of family care teams a priority. We’re also mailing a brochure to every MPP in the province. We need members to help keep up the momentum. We encourage you to book a meeting with your local MPP and election candidates as soon as possible. To make it as easy as possible, we have e-mailed documents to members to support your efforts:

• A slide presentation that you can use to guide your meeting. (Note that we’ve left space for you to insert local successes and challenges).
• A PDF of the brochure (click here) that you can print to use in your meetings or in other ways appropriate to your community.

We have also e-mailed the following two documents. Members can contact info@afhto.ca to receive a copy:

• A key messages document to ensure we’re giving consistent messages across the province.
• A spreadsheet that lists the riding and MPP contact information for each AFHTO member, sorted by member name and by riding.

We’re also scheduling an all-member web meeting to give you an update on Ontario’s political landscape, what we’re hearing in our meetings, and answer your questions. The e-mail was sent out by riding to help members in the same riding to connect and coordinate efforts. AFHTO is happy to help your group coordinate if needed – just contact info@afhto.ca. (Note: Our list of AFHTO members by riding is based on administrative office addresses. Please let us know If your organization operates in more than one riding, or send us the postal codes of your other locations and we’ll work it out for you.) If we are going to protect the improvements we’ve made to primary care in Ontario we need to ensure that more people are aware of the benefits that family care teams bring to patients, government and providers. Please keep us updated on your progress by emailing info@afhto.ca. Sincerely, Keri Selkirk, President (and Executive Director, Thames Valley FHT) Angie Heydon, Executive Director Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario

HQO’s Analysis of 2013-14 Primary Care QIPs Now Available AFHTO has just learned that Health Quality Ontario has posted Primary Care Quality Improvement Plans: Analysis for Improvement 2013-14 .  Although your 2014-15 QIPs are likely at very advanced stages of completion, we felt it was important to draw this resource to your attention. QIDS Privacy Resources Now Posted: Thanks to 102 members who participated in the “Overcoming privacy issues in partnership agreements” webinar led by Kate Dewhirst of DDO.  If you were unable to participate or want to review it click here to access the entire webinar. Also posted are:

• Presentation (slide deck): Overcoming privacy issues in partnership agreements (PDF)
• The QIDS Privacy Toolkit (PDF)
• A template Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Quality Improvement Decision Support Specialist Collaboration and Data-Sharing Agreement (Word)

Next Steps on Privacy: This work has benefited greatly from your comments, suggestions and real world feedback.  It helps stage for collaboration within and between FHTs by helping members to navigate underlying privacy and data sharing considerations. Additional privacy-related questions have arisen. Please be assured they have all been logged and will be followed up. We hope that you will continue to make us aware of barriers and challenges and share your learning with us. We will continue to update members on this work.