Tag: Management/Operations

Inside

• Managing and Supporting Staff throughout COVID-19: Q&A Refresher with Maria McDonald
• COVID@Home
• Primary Care Vaccination Quality Improvement Community of Practice (Ontario Health) – Next Meeting is April 22!
• OCFP community of practice
• Next webinar on OHT learnings!
• Reminder: Webinar on EMR auditing obligations
• COVID-19 and patient responsibility

Hello Executive Directors and Administrative Leads,

We’d like to provide some updates on a new webinar, COVID@Home and communities of practice (CoP) for vaccine roll-out. There is also a request in this email for your input regarding another OHT webinar this spring, and a reminder about an upcoming webinar on auditing. Thank you in advance for your comments towards an OHT webinar – it will help us arrange one that will be of most use to you!

Here are some updates:

Managing and Supporting Staff throughout COVID-19: Q&A Refresher with Maria McDonald

Over the past year, teams have pivoted to respond to the demands of COVID-19, and staff have shifted how and where they work. We recognize staff are working outside normal clinic hours and being tasked with additional duties as this crisis increases and Ontario remains under a stay-at-home order. How do teams continue to support staff through these transitions, recognize their efforts, and provide the flexibility needed while maintaining equity in the workplace?

For advice on these questions and more, join us for a one-hour “refresher” webcast with Maria McDonald of McDonald HR Law on Tuesday, April 27, from 12 PM to 1 PM.

This webcast invitation is going to EDs and admin leads only. However, we leave it at your discretion to extend the invitation to others on your team, as you consider appropriate.
 
More information and registration is here!

COVID@Home
Teams received an email from the ministry on April 9, requesting support for home monitoring of COVID-19 positive patients with mild to moderate symptoms. This is to help relieve the strain on hospitals.

Since that email, and due to the accelerating pressure on hospitals, particularly in 34 hot spot areas, teams have been hearing from both AFHTO and officials to identify capacity and, where needed, connect teams with the appropriate person in the hospital.

AFHTO is scheduling a call with officials to answer questions about compensation, overtime, deployment of staff, and other operational matters. Please stay tuned for more details.
 
For today, the following are available:

• Ontario Health developed the COVID@Home for Primary Care resource, which includes links to clinical pathways.
• Teams can go to this link to order oxygen saturation monitors at no cost through the Ministry of Health.
• Other COVID-19 resources can be seen here.

Teams can contact their ministry representative if there are extraordinary costs associated with delivering COVID@Home or other COVID home monitoring programs. To enable participation in COVID home monitoring efforts, teams may pause or adjust their programs and services, except those that are deemed critical (e.g., acute care, mental health and addictions).

COVID@Home is not intended to replace a home monitoring program you may already be using. If you already have a program, it would be helpful if you could email Beth MacKinnon so we know the work teams are doing and can ensure the ministry is informed.

Primary Care Vaccination Quality Improvement Community of Practice (Ontario Health) – Next Meeting is April 22!
A community of practice (CoP) came together in March under the leadership of Dr. David Kaplan from Ontario Health (COVID-19 Primary Care Lead, Toronto Region). This was for groups to share learnings, tools, and strategies across the six pilot regions during the Primary Care Vaccination Pilot in March/April.

The group supported the pilot vaccine clinic sites and primary care partners in delivering vaccines; shared learnings, tools, resources, and strategies; and enabled collaboration to identify solutions to challenges.

This pilot is now complete. As primary care vaccination expands, all members are invited to join what is now called the Ontario Health Primary Care Vaccination Quality Improvement CoP.

You can join the CoP’s Quorum group for access to weekly webinars, tools/resources, and optional coaching support.

These documents provide more information:

• How to join Quorum and subscribe to CoP updates
• PC Vaccination CoP – Getting Started (April 13, 2021)

Here are summaries of key learnings to date, as well as OMA guidance documents:

• Primary Care Vaccine CoP – Sharing Lessons Learned (Ontario Health, April 7)
• Primary Care CoP Update (Ontario Health, April 8)
  • This includes a live demo of Quorum, a review of the OMA decision guide for primary care, and examples of models used and lessons learned from the pilot sites.
• OMA Guidance Documents
  • OMA Overview Guide – Providing COVID-19 Vaccines Through Your Practice
  • OMA COVID-19 Vaccine Billing Summary
  • OMA Decision Guide and Checklist

This CoP’s webinar series will resume this Thursday, April 22. There will be one webinar a week for four weeks. They are from 8 AM to 9 AM. Registration is here.

OCFP community of practice
There is another community of practice, which is hosted by the OCFP to support physicians: “COVID-19 Community of Practice for Ontario Family Physicians.”

The next call is this week on Friday, April 23, from 8 AM to 9 AM: “The COVID-19 vaccine: Vaccination in primary care, evolving vaccine evidence, and more” with panelists Dr. Allison McGeer and Dr. Rosemarie Lall.  You can register here.

OCFP’s COVID-19 CoP session recordings, resources, and Q&As are here: https://www.dfcm.utoronto.ca/covid-19-community-practice

COVID-19 information and resources:
OCFP:         https://www.ontariofamilyphysicians.ca/
U of T, DFCM:     https://www.dfcm.utoronto.ca/covid-19-community-practice

Next webinar on OHT learnings!
On February 26, members heard from four teams about OHT development in their regions. In a poll during the webinar, most members said that another one in the spring would be useful.

To help us arrange speakers, we would like your feedback on what would be most helpful! What would you like to know about other OHTs? What questions do you have regarding their approach to population health? Governance? Primary care leadership? Patient engagement? Data and digital solutions? Performance and evaluation metrics?

Please complete this survey by this Friday, April 23. Based on the feedback, we will arrange speakers for a 90-minute webinar later in the spring.

Reminder: Webinar on EMR auditing obligations
Teams are invited to join Kate Dewhirst from Kate Dewhirst Health Law on Friday, May 7, from 12 PM to 1:30 PM to better understand obligations to audit electronic medical records (EMR).

Topics discussed will include the following:

• Why do you have to audit?
  • What’s new in the 2020 changes to PHIPA about audits of electronic systems.
  • Contractual obligations when signed onto Connecting Ontario platforms or sharing systems with OHT partners or other agencies in your geographic region.
• How often should you audit?
• What do you have to audit?
• How do you audit?
• What tools to use to document your auditing practices.

There will be time for questions. Register today!

COVID-19 and patient responsibility
Several teams have asked about communication for patients on COVID fatigue and the outcome of individuals’ actions in not following public health measures. Regions are seeing different interpretations of the urgency in following these measures and would like to communicate this clearly to patients.

If any teams have developed messaging or handouts to help people understand the impact their behavior can have on others and on the health care system, we would welcome this to share with all members.

We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this very challenging time. If you have any questions, please reach out to us anytime at info@afhto.ca

Yours in good health,
Your AFHTO team