Ultimate Blogging Championship

Tag: Members Only

  • Member input on future Ministry contract – Oct. 17 discussion document

    Key themes that have emerged so far in AFHTO consultation with members – team culture, the relationship between physicians and the FHT, and how that relationship is influenced by the Ministry-FHT contract, Ministry-FHO contracts, and the formal or “unwritten” contract between FHT and FHO. This discussion document summarizes the background and issues in these and other topics arising from Ministry-FHT contracts. With indications that primary care contracts for FHTs, NPLCs, CHCs and AHACs will likely become standardized over the next few years, the content of the next FHT contract is important for all. AFHTO’s consultation process so far has involved the AFHTO board, Physician Leadership Council and Executive Director Advisory Council. Next step is discussion in the annual AFHTO Leadership Session, Monday, October 17, 10 AM – 12 noon, Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto. There are 175 leaders from AFHTO member FHTs and NPLCs registered so far, and room for up to 50 more. There is no charge to attend this session, but you MUST BE REGISTERED – click here to do so. FHT and NPLC board members are particularly encouraged to register to ensure the governance perspective is heard.

    Key topics that have emerged so far from these consultations:

    • One standard Ministry-FHT contract, regardless of board makeup
    • Defining the “team” and fostering “teamwork”
    • Defining the “population” for which governors are accountable
    • Defining minimum standards of governance and addressing conflict of interest
    • Accountability and dispute resolution

    These are complex topics. Hopefully you will find this discussion guide a helpful digest to inform and guide you and the leaders of your FHT or NPLC through these issues.

    After the Oct. 17 Leadership Session:

    AFHTO staff will compile the results into a meeting report to share with members and the AFHTO board.  AFHTO will continue to inform and consult with members to develop positions as issues emerge. These results will form the basis for what AFHTO will advocate for the next FHT contract template. Click here to access the discussion document.

  • Health Link Leaders: Tools, Resources and Updates

    This section provides tools, resources and updates for Health Link leaders to support knowledge translation and promote a culture of continuous learning. Materials to support the members of the Health Link Community of Practice (CoP) will be posted here.

    October 2, 2016: AFHTO’s Health Links CoP to Wind Down

    AFHTO is currently facing a number of priorities. In particular, we are focused on advocacy, education, and support regarding the implementation of Patients First and the implications for our member teams in terms of governance, accountability, and relationships with their LHINs. Given this, and given that Health Quality Ontario (HQO) has established a robust Health Links Community of Practice, we have made the decision to wind down ours. This will allow us to maintain our focus while mitigating the duplication of effort between AFHTO and HQO. Members of this CoP are invited to join HQO’s Health Links Community of Practice and participate in their webinar series Transitions between Hospital to Home. Part 1 of this series will take place on Friday, October 14 from 12:00-1:00pm; Part 2 will take place on Wednesday, November 16 at the same time. The attached flyer contains information about the topics and guest speakers. Register for the webinars here, or email HQO for more information. Going forward, AFHTO will continue to monitor Health Links developments for potential relevance to primary care, and we will work with HQO to ensure that the role of primary care organizations as leaders and sponsors of Health Links is recognized and supported. We will also maintain the resources on this page, so please check back here for updates related to primary care. In future, we may re-assess the need for a Health Links Community of Practice specifically for FHTs and NPLCs, and if we determine that one is needed, we will reconvene it at that time. In the meantime, we encourage you to get involved with HQO’s Health Links Community of Practice and make sure that your voice – the voice of team-based primary care – is heard.

    Health Link Leaders: Forming a Link (News)

    Health Links Target Population

    Advancing Health Links

    Health Links in Action (Barrie & Community FHT)

    The Barrie Community Health Links and the Barrie and Community Family Health Team are producing a series of patient story videos entitled Health Links in Action.  The first in the series is called Evelyn. The Barrie Community Health Link are in their third year, and they have seen significant success in terms of cost savings and systems impact, providing evidence of the need for continued investment in Health Links.  However, perhaps the greatest testimonial for the incredible work that is being done is from patients and their families. Please feel free to share the link to this video.

    Resources from Hamilton Health Links

    You can access a number of resources on Coordinated Care Planning, Patient & Community Engagement, Quality Improvement, Privacy, and other interesting articles by clicking on the link below. These  have been created by the Hamilton Health Link and are posted for information and use by other AFHTO members: http://hchealthlink.ca/.

    Resources from East Toronto Health Link

    Resources developed by East Toronto Health Link on Advanced Care Planning (ACP):

    Integrated Care

    Integrated Care in Norway – this article discusses the mandatory multidisciplinary plan for individual care, the “Individual Care Plan” introduced by law in Norway. The regulation was established to meet the need for improved efficiency and quality of health and social services, and to increase patient involvement. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3107091/)

    Health Links Conference

    The Longwoods Ways & Means to Enable Health Links conference was held on February 26th. Click here for the Longwoods summary of the day and Ontario Health Links Infographic. The presentation slides from the conference are available online here.

    Health systems Performance Research Network

    A series of 3 reports published by the Health System Performance Research Network to assess the value that Ontario’s Health Links add to the system.

    HQO Reports on Progress of Health Links

    Articles

      If you have any questions or wish to submit additional resources, please contact Bryn Hamilton, Provincial Lead Governance & Leadership: bryn.hamilton@afhto.ca  

  • Webinar – Launch of D2D 4.0 Interactive Report

    The D2D 4.0 Interactive Report is now live. Launch webinars were held on September 29 at 8:30 am and 3:30 pm providing a summary of the results.  It was recorded for the benefit of those who were unable to attend or wish to review it – see below.

     

    An Orientation webinar has also been recorded to help you use and navigate the interactive report – see below. Once you’ve watched the webinar and checked out your results, use the links below to help you contextualize and apply this information:

    Need help? Contact us.

  • Minister’s mandate letter/ Compensation funding letters out “in weeks, not months”

    This morning, government released Premier Wynne’s mandate letters to her Ministers, and the Health Minister spoke at the annual NPAO conference. Key points for members below. Government’s top 10 overall priorities included one health item:

    • “Building a health care system everyone can rely on by improving the availability of same-day, after-hours and weekend care, and continuing to grow the number of frontline workers providing the care people want in home and community settings.”

    The Health Minister’s mandate letter re-stated this. In addition, his list includes:

    • Ensuring that patients who want a primary care provider have one.
    • Implementing the expanded scope of practice of registered nurses to allow them to prescribe some medications directly to patients.
    • Ensuring, as you work to improve access to services, that a focus on equity of access is reflected in solutions.

    The letter also lists “key results” that have been achieved, including:

    • Provided support and stability to the health care workforce, including funding to improve primary care recruitment and retention of nurses and other interdisciplinary team members.

    While this was promised in the Ontario Budget last February, it has not yet been “provided”.  Interprofessional primary care organizations are awaiting their funding letters, which the Minister must sign in order for the dollars to actually flow. On this last point, the Minister told the NPAO audience, “You’ve been waiting a long time.” Speaking about the funding letters, he said three things:

    • “We’re very close.”
    • “When the dollars do flow, it will be retroactive to April 1.”
    • “It will be in weeks, not months.”

    The senior leaders of all three associations, AFHTO, AOHC and NPAO, have been pressing the Minister and his office to give urgency to this. Needless to say, the Minister and NDP Health Critic France Gelinas, who was in the audience, heard this again this morning. The three associations subsequently issued a news release.

  • Diabetes Care

    Primary care teams are doing better than most in diabetes management. And what’s more, we’re getting better faster than most. This might not be that surprising to AFHTO members, almost all of whom have well-developed diabetes programs. What might be a bit of a shock is how far we have yet to go. While about 60% of patients with diabetes might meet at least one aspect of the guidelines for care, only about 10% meet the targets for a more comprehensive group of the key metrics: appropriate frequency of testing and levels of  blood sugar and blood pressure, and appropriate prescription of statin for cardiovascular protection (pers. comm., K. Tu, 2015). It seems improbable that AFHTO members can’t do better than 10%, especially since some teams already are. AFHTO has already had success in working together to MEASURE primary care. We can take this one step further and work together IMPROVE care. To that end, the QIDS Steering Committee, in conversation with the board of AFHTO, have identified diabetes care as a priority to advance IMPROVEMENT of primary care across AFHTO. You can be part of this in the following ways:

    • Get up close with your peers.
    • Get up close with your data.
    • Get close to help.

    Get up close with your peers:

    Connect with peers about diabetes program planning, setting objectives and measuring progress, including selection of consistent indicators as outlined in the Schedule A indicator catalogue (available at the same link as the program planning information, above).

    Get up close with your data:

    Increasing robustness of D2D diabetes indicator in D2D 4.0

    Prior to D2D 4.0, the composite indicator used three measures for diabetes – this is inadequate. Additional indicators were added to integrate process and outcome measures and thus increase the robustness of the composite indicator. The intended result is an increasingly more meaningful tool to assess, measure, and compare quality of diabetes care. AFHTO members considered a number of indicators, based on their importance in clinical management of diabetes, scientific soundness, and feasibility. The following indicators were shortlisted. They are based on the latest guidelines from the Canadian Diabetes Association, Health Quality Ontario’s (HQO) Primary Care Performance Measurement Framework (PCPMF) and consultations with QIDS Specialists, clinicians and members of the AFHTO diabetes community of practice.

    • Percent of people with diabetes and LDL-C ≥ 2.0 mmol/L who are on statins.
    • Percent of people with diabetes who received a retinal eye exam in the past two years.
    • Percent of people with diabetes who received at least one peripheral neuropathy screening in the past year.
    • Percent of people <80 years old with diabetes whose HbA1C ≤7.0% in the past year.
    • Percent of people with diabetes with HbA1C levels at their individualized target (i.e.,≤7.0% or 7.1-8.5%).
    • Percent of people with diabetes who are confident in their ability to manage their condition.

    The one indicator chosen to be added to the composite diabetes care indicator was percentage of patients with diabetes aged 40 years and older who have been prescribed a statin therapy. It is derived from the first indicators short-listed but modified for alignment with the most recent Canadian Diabetes Association guidelines.

    Get close to help:

    1. Bump up your QI skills with instructional videos from the University of Toronto Family Medicine department.
    2. Tap into external resources to support clinical process changes such as those from HQO or others (check with your QIDS Specialist).

    This list of resources is a start. We will be adding to it – keep checking back and adding your stories. Together, AFHTO members are changing the game of measurement in primary care. The time is right to build on this collective momentum to move beyond MEASURING to actually IMPROVING care.

  • AFHTO ED Mentorship Program

    AFHTO’s Executive Director Mentorship Program connects experienced EDs with new EDs who feel they would benefit from the support of a mentor. 

    Executive directors and admin leads play a key role as leaders, facilitators, and links within their teams and across their communities, with their peers, staff, physicians, boards, patients, and other system leaders. Mentoring is about supporting people to develop into their role, and this mentorship program is in place to help leaders in primary care teams excel.

     

    ED Mentorship Program Overview

    New executive directors tell AFHTO when they would benefit from this program and if there are specific areas in which they need guidance or support. This helps with mentor-mentee matching. We also make every effort to match EDs whose teams work in similar environments, taking into consideration geography, size, governance structure, academic or Francophone status, and other characteristics that reflect the diversity of teams.

    EDs then decide frequency of meetings and communication. While there is no timeline on a mentorship program, EDs tend to work together for six months to a year. While formal mentorship rarely goes longer, the EDs tend to stay in touch from the relationships they build.

     

    Benefits of the ED Mentorship Program

    Benefits to Mentors Benefits to Mentees
    • Being part of a solution to build capacity for leadership in primary care
    • Pleasure of giving back and passing on skills, knowledge and wisdom
    • Satisfaction of enhancing a mentee’s understanding of the primary care team workplace
    • Heightened profile within their workplace
    • Coaching practice and leadership skills
    • Heightened self-awareness
    • Access to wisdom and expertise in a confidential safe relationship
    • Opportunities for self-assessment
    • Greater understanding of current business practices
    • Introduction to business networks and related supports

    What we have heard is a testament to the strong leaders in our membership. Mentees agree that their mentors are knowledgeable and able to provide needed support and guidance. Mentors tell us that their mentees are happy to receive input and guidance; willing to self-evaluate; and open to applying a mentor’s insights to their own situation. 

    Here is a sample of what the participants have said:

    • “My mentor is awesome, very helpful! She provides amazing support.”
    • “My mentor is very knowledgeable and easy to work with. She always makes time to answer questions and provide guidance when required.”
    • “I would suggest having a mentor work with all new EDs when they come onboard.”
    • “I can learn as much from my mentee as she can from me. Seems to be working for both of us.”

     

     

    Resources for ED mentors and mentees

    The materials are available to assist our ED mentors and mentees in defining and developing the mentoring relationship.

    The program launched in February 2016 with an orientation webinar for ED mentors, presented in partnership with the Centre for Effective Practice (CEP).

     

    More Information

    Interested in becoming a mentor or a mentee? Please contact info@afhto.ca

  • NPLC Leadership Council – Members and Contact List

    Names and contact information for the AFHTO NPLC Leadership Council members:

    Organization Name

    First Name

    Surname

    Name

    Role

    E-mail

    Belleville NPLC

    Karen

    Clayton-Roberts

    Karen Clayton-Roberts

    Clinical Lead

    kclayton-roberts@cogeco.net

    Georgina NPLC

    Beth

    Cowper-Fung

    Beth  Cowper-Fung

    Clinical Lead

    beth.cowperfung@gnplc.ca

    Ingersoll NPLC

    Sue

    Tobin

    Sue Tobin

    Clinical Lead

    stobin@ingersollnplc.ca

    VON NPLC – Lakeshore

    Lisa

    Ekblad

    Lisa  Ekblad

    Clinical Lead

    lisa.ekblad@von.ca

    Belleville NPLC

    Ann Marie  

    Manlow

    Ann Marie Manlow

    Admin Lead

    ammanlow@cogeco.net

    Essex County NPLC

    Pauline

    Gemmell

    Pauline Gemmell

    Admin Lead

    p.gemmell@ecnplc.com

    VON NPLC – Lakeshore

    Andrew

    Ward

    Andrew Ward

    Admin Lead

    andrew.ward@von.ca

    Essex County NPLC

    Kate

    Bolohan

    Kate Bolohan

    Clinical Lead

    k.bolohan@ecnplc.com

    Ingersoll NPLC

    Stephanie

    Nevins

    Stephanie Nevins

    Clinic Manager

    snevins@ingersollnplc.ca

    VON NPLC – Lakeshore

    Sharon

    Bevington

    Sharon Bevington

    Executive Assistant

    sharon.bevington@von.ca

    Georgina NPLC

    Lisa

    Joyce

    Lisa Joyce

    Admin Lead

    lisa.joyce@gnplc.ca

     

  • Diabetes Care Composite Indicator – D2D 3.0

    Click on the following links to access: 1. Technical notes 2. Interpretive notes 3. Data quality actions – Actions and ideas to consider and discuss with clinical leads and other members of the team 4. Potential actions related to processes of care – Actions and ideas to consider and discuss with clinical leads and other members of the team

  • Emergency department visits – all conditions

    Interpretive Notes Data Quality Actions Potential Actions Related to Quality of Care

    Information on this indicator related to D2D 3.0 can be found here. For technical notes, please see page 36 of the Data Dictionary.

    Interpretive Notes

    Tips to help you understand the data and put it in context.

    Data Quality Actions

    Tips to help you understand the quality of your data and, if necessary, take steps to improve it.

    Potential Actions Related to Processes of Care

    Concrete steps you can take to improve care, based on your data. Assuming you have established that the data are good enough to direct action AND that improving performance in this area is a priority for your team, you may wish to discuss the following options with your clinical leaders, Quality Improvement committees, team staff and/or patients:

  • Review of registries of specific chronic conditions

    Interpretive Notes Data Quality Actions Potential Actions Related to Quality of Care

    Information on this indicator related to D2D 3.0 can be found here. For technical notes, please see page 48 of the Data Dictionary.

    Interpretive Notes

    Tips to help you understand the data and put it in context.

    Data Quality Actions

    Tips to help you understand the quality of your data and, if necessary, take steps to improve it.

    Potential Actions Related to Processes of Care

    Concrete steps you can take to improve care, based on your data. Assuming you have established that the data are good enough to direct action AND that improving performance in this area is a priority for your team, you may wish to discuss the following options with your clinical leaders, Quality Improvement committees, team staff and/or patients: