The Ministry of Labour regularly undertakes “Safe at Work Ontario” activities, such as initiatives to focus attention on important health and safety hazards or concerns.
Between July 1, 2018, and March 31, 2019, health and community care workplaces may be visited as part of the MOL’s Safe At Work Ontario internal responsibility system (IRS) initiative to promote compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and its regulations..
The following IRS focus priorities will be integrated into MOL workplace inspections:
• Training / information and instruction/supervisory competency
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) / protective devices:
• Reporting incidents of workplace violence and other reporting requirements
• Notification requirements
• Duties of directors and officers of a corporation
A joint webinar with the Ministry of Labour & Public Services Health and Safety Association (PSHSA) on November 14, 2018, reviewed how “Safe at Work Ontario” activities may affect your workplace and what compliance support resources are available to help you with achieving compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and its regulations.
Speakers:
Eunice John, Provincial Specialist, Ministry of Labour
Sherri Bastos, Director of Prevention and Operations, Engagement and Retention, Public Services Health & Safety Association
The Lindsay Advocate article published on November 12, 2018 By Roderick Benns,The Lindsay Advocate Health care services continue to be available at the Woodville Medical Centre, thanks to a collaborative effort between the Community Care Health & Care Network and the City of Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team. Following the departure of Dr. Muhammed Khan from his practice at the Woodville Medical Centre at the end of October, the two organizations have stepped up to meet the health care needs of Woodville residents through an interim arrangement until March 31, 2019. Primary care professionals from the Community Care Community Health Centre (CHC), including family physician Dr. Jill Caines, nurses and nurse practitioners, as well as medical administration staff, are stepping up. The City of Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team will provide additional support through a nurse practitioner one day a week. The clinic will operate five days a week, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm. When efforts to find a replacement for Dr. Khan were not successful, the Woodville Medical Trust asked Community Care for assistance. Community Care Director of Clinical Services Margot Fitzpatrick says the organization moved quickly to expand service to Woodville. “At the heart of the community health centre model of care is the ability of residents to receive health care where they live. It has been rewarding to work with our dedicated CHC health care team to keep the Medical Centre open to serve the residents of Woodville,” Fitzpatrick explained. Mike Perry, executive director of the City of Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team said, “I am delighted to join Community Care in finding a local solution for ongoing primary care in Woodville. I really want to commend Community Care for its leadership to help ensure care for patients in the Woodville area.” “Health care takes local cooperation to provide care where people live, especially in our rural area,” adds Perry. Although funding arrangements to support the services beyond March 31, 2019 have not yet been finalized, Barb Mildon, chief executive officer with Community Care stated, “Community Care is committed to continue working to find a permanent solution to enable continuing service delivery in Woodville.” For further information about services at the Woodville Medical Centre (115 Nappadale St.), contact Margot Fitzpatrick, Director of Clinical Services, Community Care Health & Care Network. mfitzpatrick@ccckl.ca. Clients of the medical centre can contact staff at 705-439-2411. Click here to access the The Lindsay Advocate article
By Tara Kiran, MD, MSc, Sam Davie, MSc, Rahim Moineddin, PhD, and Aisha Lofters, MD, PhD; St. Michael’s Academic FHT
Background: There is good evidence that cancer-specific patient outreach improves rates of cervical, breast, and colorectal cancer screening. However, it is unclear how primary care practices should implement integrated outreach for all 3 types of cancer screening. They aimed to understand whether integrated outreach using mailed letters or phone calls were more effective at increasing screening uptake in a primary care organization.
Internationally renown change agent Helen Bevan will facilitate a virtual lunch and learn on Primary Care and Health System Change on Nov. 22, hosted by The Change Foundation and offered to AFHTO and OCFP members.
Bevan, the Chief Transformation Officer for the National Health Service (NHS), will be joined by a panel of esteemed primary care practitioners from the UK and Ontario who will share their insight on system transformation, leading and responding to change, building relationships and maintaining momentum.
Within this interactive webinar, participants will have the opportunity to learn about how to overcome obstacles and address challenges based on lessons learned in the UK and how they might apply to primary care in Ontario. Register here.
In this Issue:
Helen Bevan webinar registration open
Happy Nurse Practitioner Week
Happy Family Doctors Week
Helping children find their inner heroes
Members in the media and journals
ImPACT – Primary Care Team Pharmacists website launched
ED performance management slides, materials and video
Walk or Run to Quit 2.0 feasibility survey
College of Nurses seeking volunteers for new PN exam development
Invitation to co-design dementia education app
HPCO call for abstracts
New quality standards-schizophrenia and osteoarthritis
Upcoming events regarding follow-up in the north and more
Happy Nurse Practitioner Week
Happy Nurse Practitioner Week to all the NPs working in primary care teams across the province! Thank you for your hard work and dedication to the patients that you see and the team that you work with.
Over the past few months and years we have seen many changes to the NP scope of practice in Ontario. This has led to the need for additional time in education and training for NPs and you should all be proud of the work that you have done to expand your ability to care for patients.
Please take some time this week to reflect on the work that you do and know that you make a difference in the lives of your patients and teams.
Happy Family Doctors Week
And Happy Family Doctors Week to all the family physicians working with primary care teams across Ontario as well! Whether affiliated, salaried or consulting, your insight and collaboration are appreciated and valued.
We know times have been challenging for the past few years, but you should be proud of all the work you’ve done and the strides you’ve made in improving your patients’ and communities’ health. Thank you!
Members can also join celebrations this week by using #LoveMyFamilyDoc on social media and sharing CFPC’s video.
Helping children find their inner heroes
Thanks to our AFHTO 2018 conference attendees’ generosity, Starlight Children Foundation kids in Montreal got to dress up as their favourite superheroes. Look at those smiling faces!
ED performance management slides, materials and video
The Lead Executive Performance Guide – an optional tool to assist boards with the requirement of having an executive director performance evaluation process in place – was reviewed with Accompass at last week’s webcast on ED performance management.
The guide, the two presentations from the webcast, and the recording are here.
Walk or Run to Quit 2.0 feasibility survey
In December Canadian Cancer Society’s Walk or Run to Quit (WRTQ) will close out the current 3-year project. The results have inspired them to consider a new program design that could reach more smokers with the opportunity to use a physical-activity based cessation program to help them along in their quit attempts.
They’re seeking your input on the feasibility of having a modified version of WRTQ available for community-based champions to deliver in their own settings. Deadline Nov. 15.
College of Nurses seeking volunteers for new PN exam development
Your travel-related expenses will be covered. Application deadlinenoon on Mon.,Nov. 19, 2018.
Invitation to co-design dementia education app
Queen’s University, Sinai Health System and partners are developing an online education platform to educate primary care physicians and NPs about dementia diagnosis and management. They’re seeking physicians and NPs to participate in focus groups to help them design a system that is valuable and useful to providers. Dates available:
Wed. Nov. 21, 5pm – 11th floor classroom (600 University – Mount Sinai)
Thurs. Nov 22, 5pm – 14th floor classroom (600 University) – Mount Sinai)
Food and an honorarium will be provided, and remote attendance can be offered for some participants using the Zoom platform. Additional dates in Kingston and via remote on Nov .19 and/or Nov. 26 during the lunch hour may be available. See the recruitment poster and consent form for more information.
New quality standards-schizophrenia and osteoarthritis
Hospice Palliative Care Ontario has opened their conference call for abstracts. If you’re interested in submitting an abstract, please visit their website for more details. Deadline Nov. 28.
If you have any questions, you can contact, Randy Markus, Conference Manager at rmarkus@hpco.ca or by telephone at: 416-304-1477 or 1-800-349-3111 ext. 23
OPHA Fall Forum: Cannabis in our Communities, Nov. 14, 2018
Learn about the health effects of cannabis and the public health approach to marijuana. Learn more here.
Sweden-Canada Digital Health Initiative, Dec. 5, 2018
Share knowledge and discuss Ontario & Sweden’s digital health strategies and the challenges with implementing digital health solutions. Learn more here.
Focus on Follow-up, Nov. 27, 2018
A full-day, interprofessional workshop highlighting northern teams and their solutions on how they can help their patients get the right follow-up from the right providers at the right time. Learn more here.
Governance Webcast Series: Board Orientation and Education, Dec. 6, 2018
Learn why board orientation and education is important. Register now!
By Tara Kiran, MD, MSc, Sam Davie, MSc, Rahim Moineddin, PhD, and Aisha Lofters, MD, PhD; St. Michael’s Academic FHT
Background: There is good evidence that cancer-specific patient outreach improves rates of cervical, breast, and colorectal cancer screening. However, it is unclear how primary care practices should implement integrated outreach for all 3 types of cancer screening. They aimed to understand whether integrated outreach using mailed letters or phone calls were more effective at increasing screening uptake in a primary care organization.
Authors: Tara Kiran, Noor Ramji, Mary Beth Derocher, Girdhari Rajesh, Samantha Davie, Margarita Lam-Antoniades; St. Michaels Academic FHT
Abstract
Embracing practice-based quality improvement (QI) represents one way for clinicians to improve the care they provide to patients while also improving their own professional satisfaction. But engaging in care redesign is challenging for clinicians. In this article, we describe our experience over the last 7 years transforming the care delivered in our large primary care practice. We reflect on our journey and offer 10 tips to healthcare leaders seeking to advance a culture of improvement. Our organisation has developed a cadre of QI leaders, tracks a range of performance measures and has demonstrated sustained improvements in important areas of patient care. Success has required deep engagement with both patients and clinicians, a long-term vision, and requisite patience.
Providers who listen to their feelings and concerns.
Teams who contribute data to D2D have the opportunity to share data about how they are doing in terms of these indicators. One of the easiest ways to obtain this data is through a patient experience survey.
The PPPC is a 14-question survey that will let your patients tell you how patient-centered THEY think their care is. Some of the questions are similar to the ones you know from the HQO’s PES, or some of the questions in Data to Decisions – but they dig a little deeper into the relationship between patient and provider, and how that relationship affects the care they receive. It can give you a fresh perspective on the care your team is providing, amplify your patients’ voice, and maybe help relieve some of the “survey fatigue.”
But what does it all mean? Once your patients have sent back their surveys, check out the Instructions for Scoring the PPPC [PDF] and enter the data in the PPPC Score Calculator [downloads an Excel workbook]. The calculator will automatically turn your patients’ answers into aggregate scores for the following:
Each of the 14 questions
Each of the 3 components of patient-centredness
How thoroughly their illness experience has been explored
Whether they found common ground with their physician
Whether they feel understood as a whole person
Overall patient-centrednesss.
Wondering where the PPPC might fit in with your existing patient experience survey, how the questions relate to D2D indicators, or what to do with the results once you’ve seen them? Check our our FAQ for answers!
Consider sharing your results! The more we hear back from teams like yours, the more we can help all teams deliver more patient-centered care. Send your completed calculator worksheet to us at improve@afhto.ca.
Beyond the Survey: Engaging Your Patients in Quality Improvement
HQO’s Insights on Patient Engagement looks at the different ways health care organizations engage their patients. Across the health sector, surveys are the most common way to engage patients: 93% of home care organizations; 79% of interprofessional primary care teams, 74% of long-term care patients, and 66% of hospitals use patient surveys. In addition to surveys, here are some other ways organizations are engaging their patients, and how many interprofessional primary care teams are using them:
Focus groups, town halls and community meetings: 23% of iteams
Advisory council or similar: 9% of teams
Patients on the board: 10% of teams
Patient advisors on QI committees: 12% of teams
Patients involved in co-design: 9% of teams
At 10%,interprofessional primary care teams have a small lead when it comes to including patients on their boards. At 23%, interprofessional primary care teams are in the middle of the pack (tied with long-term care) when it comes to engaging patients through focus groups, town halls, and community meetings. Interprofessional primary care teams lag behind when it comes to including patients in other leadership and planning activities.
80% of long-term care facilities, 72% of hospitals, and 71% of home care organizations have patient advisory councils.
59% of hospitals, 36% of home care organizations, and 23% of long-term care facilities engage patients in developing their QIP.
43% of home care organizations, 33% of hospitals, and 14% of long-term care facilities include patient advisors in QI committees.
38% of hospitals, 14% of home care organizations, and 14% of long-term care facilities include patients in co-design.
Patients Canada has pioneered the practice of bringing the authentic patient voice to health care decision-making, ensuring decisions reflect patient priorities.
Health Quality Ontario (HQO) define patient engagement as “patients, families and health providers actively collaborating to improve Ontario’s health system.” They encourage and help providers to work with patients and families to understand and respond to their needs.
Patient and caregiver engagement is an ongoing focus for The Change Foundation, an independent health policy think-tank that works to inform positive change in Ontario’s health care system.
Provincial policy manual for primary care teams and practices
It’s finally here! We have developed a set of standardized policy templates for primary care. These templates can be used by teams across the province or shared with other primary care practices, such as solo physicians and non-team-based clinics.
The manual gives you the flexibility to determine, for your own practice or setting, what policies are required, and whether/how they should be tailored for your unique circumstances. It includes policies such as substance abuse focusing on marijuana, among other substances.
Whether you’re updating your own organizational polices or in the process of developing them, we hope you find this to be a useful aide.
In this Issue:
Provincial policy manual for primary care teams and practices
Using antibiotics wisely
Collaborative governance case studies – how collaborative are you?
Making the case for nutrition screening in team-based primary care to meet the needs of your frail clients
Webinar: Opioid tapering and tools for use in clinical practice
Leadershift applied leadership e-learning series
Upcoming events regarding follow-up in the north and more
Using antibiotics wisely
Using Antibiotics Wisely is a national campaign to help clinicians and patients engage in conversations about unnecessary antibiotic use. Current priorities include addressing overuse in the community, where 92% of antibiotics are prescribed. This year, one area of focus is antibiotics for acute upper respiratory tract infections in primary care.
Choosing Wisely Canada has worked with partners to produce a few resources including posters, evidence-based tools, and patient materials. In addition, there are over 20 Choosing Wisely Canada recommendations that encourage judicious antibiotic use, created by over 15 national specialty societies. Visit their website for clinician and patient resources, in time for Antibiotic Awareness Week (Nov. 12-18, 2018).
Collaborative governance case studies – how collaborative are you?
Collaborative governance is simply multiple boards partnering together to collectively achieve results for shared communities and/or stakeholders, including patients. Read these case studies to learn how two FHTs took a differing approach to collaborative governance, and to learn where your board falls on the spectrum of collaboration.
Making the case for nutrition screening in team-based primary care to meet the needs of your frail clients
Presented by Dr. Heather Keller on Wed., Nov. 21, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Did you know that ….
Malnourished patients cost $2000 more per hospital stay and cost an addition 2 billion dollars per year in health care costs?
Malnourished seniors are three times more likely to fall?
Malnutrition = fragility?
Primary care is the optimal place for the identification and treatment of malnutrition by team-based care. Nutrition screening in FHTs started in 2016 and now over a hundred teams are screening. This webinar will make the case for nutrition screening as a means of shifting primary care to ‘upstream’ prevention of undernutrition and eventual frailty. Register here.
Webinar: Opioid tapering and tools for use in clinical practice
On Mon., Nov. 19, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. join Dr. Andrea Furlan, co-chair of ECHO Ontario Chronic Pain and Opioid Stewardship, to learn about and discuss opioid tapering and tools for use in clinical practice. It offers the following learning objectives:
Describe barriers and facilitators for a successful opioid taper
Develop an approach for managing opioid withdrawal
Remember some tools for use in clinical practice to assist in opioid tapering
LeaderShift is happy to announce the Applied Leadership E-Learning Series, an online series on key leadership topics that will give you practical, actionable insights you can use. The first topic in this series will be “How to Give Better Feedback.”
Learn more today about this interactive online session and how to connect with leaders from across community and primary health care. Seats to participate live are limited. Apply before Fri., Nov. 16! Information is also posted on our website.
NPAO MAiD Conference, Thunder Bay, Nov. 10, 2018
Participate in the MAiD Conference hosted by the NPAO and MOHLTC. Learn more here. More sessions are also being planned in Toronto (Nov. 30) and London and Sudbury (dates TBD).
Altering Challenging Behaviours In Persons With ABI, Nov. 14, 2018
Acquired Brain Injury Behaviour Services at Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation presents this full-day Toronto workshop. You can register here.
Focus on Follow-up, Nov. 27, 2018
A full-day, interprofessional workshop highlighting northern teams and their solutions on how they can help their patients get the right follow-up from the right providers at the right time. Learn more here.
Governance Webcast Series: Board Orientation and Education, Dec. 6, 2018
Learn why board orientation and education is important. Register now!
The governance attestation requires every board have an executive director performance evaluation process in place. For guidance, a framework has been developed by Accompass to support boards in meeting this requirement. During this webcast, Accompass reviewed the Lead Executive Performance Guide. It includes the role of the board, key principles and best practices in ED performance management. One board chair also spoke to his FHT’s ED performance appraisal process and reviewed their appraisal document. Below are the materials from the webcast:
My Algoma Manitoulin Now The Webbwood Public Library is being recognized for its health services, not just its books. For their work to bring more services to Webbwood, two institutions have been named North East LHIN Healthy Change Champions says LHINS CEO, Jeremy Stevenson. He says the Espanola and Area Family Health Team and Public Health Sudbury & Districts took the lead in providing various services such as the From Soup to Tomatoes program, it includes a certified kitchen for healthy cooking and an Ontario Telemedicine Network is also in place. He adds the North East LHIN applauds the work of the two outstanding health service providers whose leadership is helping to meet the needs of people closer to home. Together, the two institutions have implemented several programs including the From Soup to Tomatoes arm chair-based exercise program, the snowshoe and urban pole lending program, health promotion programming, and group programming. The kitchen has been certified, and provides a space for the community to cook together and learn more about healthy eating. In addition, an Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) connection was established in the library’s community room, allowing health care providers to offer OTN appointments, including specialist appointments, to residents of Webbwood, eliminating the need for them to travel to a health care facility in another community. “Together we are able to increase opportunities so that all residents in the Espanola and surrounding area can have control over their health, while knowing that more accessible and client-centred health care is available when needed,” said Aimee Belanger, Public Health Nurse, Public Health Sudbury & Districts. Many other organizations also offer services to residents in Webbwood. Both plan to continue to strengthen partnerships and encourage more providers to explore similar models to service delivery. “It is our goal to develop or modify programming to meet the needs of the residents of Webbwood,” said Brunetti. “By working together with the North East LHIN and other partners, we can create a service delivery model that enhances access for individuals in the community.” “Public Health recognizes the strengths in working together with community partners to address health inequities in our communities,” said Belanger. “Partnering with the Webbwood Public Library is a prime example of how unique partnerships can be used to improve the health and well-being of a whole community.” Click here to access My Algoma Manitoulin Now article
