Tag: Members Only News

The time is now! The D2D submission platform closes Sunday, February 5. Be part of what Dr. Danielle Martin describes in her new book, Better Now, as “the most exciting measurement work going on in Canada” (p. 78). We’re here if you need help. Get moving! Physical Activity for Better Quality Care. AFHTO is inviting patients, QIDS Specialists, and IHPs to join us on Tuesday, March 7 for a one-day learning workshop about using physical activity – the most vital of signs – to help patients achieve better health outcomes. Registration opens next week; it’s first-come, first-serve, so spread the word to your team! You were (always) right about “same/next day appointment”: It is NOT the only thing that matters to patients! Consider this resource to help you talk about access in a more meaningfully way in your QIP. Struggling with getting Diabetes data from your EMR? The modified diabetes indicator calculator works even if you can only pull data for a few measures. Also, see these member-developed resources for help in capturing diabetes data in your EMR. Get ready to talk about what you see in D2D 4.1: Join us for a webinar at noon on Tuesday, March 28 (after the launch on March 7) to ask questions and tell stories about how your teams are using D2D.

D2D 4.1 Timeline

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D2D 4.1 submission platform open now through February 5. Start now, even if you’re still gathering data. Save as you go and return to finish up later. Also, consider encouraging your peers to do the same. More members contributing means more collective strength for AFHTO’s advocacy efforts on behalf of all members. Need help? See the Planning & Preparation page for step-by-step instructions and a video walkthrough, or contact us anytime. Medication Reconciliation: Advance notice of upcoming webinar about how to define, measure and improve medication reconciliation on Feb 17, 2017. More details coming soon. Estimating physician FTE: AFHTO is making progress in finding out if and how billing data can be used to make better decisions about human resource allocation in primary care. THANKS to nearly two dozen physicians who have contributed data to this effort! Interactive report launches March 7, in time to support your 2017 Quality Improvement Plans and program planning for 2017-2018.

D2D 4.1 Timeline

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Happy New Year! Welcome back to all who have been away enjoying the festive season and we wish you all a happy and healthy 2017. D2D 4.1 Submission platform opens Monday: The D2D data submission page will be open until February 5. You can get started now, even if your team is not ready yet to submit data for ALL the D2D indicators. The Planning & Preparation page has everything you need to know, including a video walkthrough. Updated EMR Queries: Consistent standardized queries help your team use your EMR data to compare to others through D2D. Use the Quick Reference Guide to be sure you are comparing EMR apples to apples! Focus on follow-up after hospitalization: AFHTO members are changing the definition of “follow up after hospitalization” to something that matches what primary care teams actually do. Consider submitting your data for the new AFHTO-based Follow-Up After Hospitalization indicator for D2D 4.1 as well as your QIP. Ways to make D2D submission easier: Join us on January 18, 2017 to find ways to make it easier to submit data to D2D, even if you aren’t ready yet to submit data for ALL the indicators. You can also feel free to reach out to the AFHTO QIDS team at any time.

D2D 4.1 Timeline

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LHIN-level D2D summary: Please feel free to share this LHIN-level summary of D2D performance with your LHIN and other partners. Following the advice of QSC and the AFHTO Board, it contains data only for LHINs which have a minimum of 6 teams contributing data, to eliminate the chance of identifying any one team. Quality in primary care: The Auditor General reported that the MOHLTC hasn’t defined quality in primary care. Maybe – but AFHTO members have! What’s more, you’ve shown that this definition of quality, which reflects patient and provider priorities, is related to lower health care costs. Feel free to share the good news widely. Improving care for patients with depression: Even though major depression is more commonly managed in emergency departments or inpatient settings, primary care teams may find it useful to consider the recently released quality standards for major depression. Tools to help with your 2017 QIP: HQO has released the 2017 QIP Navigator and several related tools. We’ve posted them along with a free decision-support toolkit which may help you respond to questions about equity in this year’s QIP. To make your QIP even easier, consider aligning it with D2D indicators. Medication reconciliation: If you want to hear how others are addressing this in their QIPs, click “yes” below. Depending on demand, we’ll set up a webinar. The Pharmacist Community of Practice will also be providing more insight into med rec definitions and indicators in time for QIP preparation.

  Download your refreshed HQO Primary Care Practice Reports now: Data are now current to March 2016. Read the technical details and updates from HQO carefully as some indicators changed from last iteration. This will help you prepare to submit data for D2D 4.1 starting January 9.

D2D 4.1 Timeline

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Better interventions for childhood obesity: New research is exploring how to reduce childhood obesity through better monitoring of infant growth in primary care. Be a part of it by completing a 5-minute, 16-question online survey. Questions? Contact Sarah Carsley for more information. Patient-specific targets for blood sugar control: New tools to set and track individualized targets in the EMR can help you make sure your patients are getting the right care for their needs. Use the diabetes care trend graph in D2D to track your progress. Improving patient experience: If you want D2D 4.1 to show the progress you have made in improving patient experience, you may want to get going now on patient experience surveys. Check out the D2D interpretive notes and suggested data-quality actions, tools from Cliniconex and other patient-survey tools. Enhance your ongoing patient engagement efforts with the new HQO guide, Engaging with Patients and Caregivers about Quality Improvement, plus other patient engagement tools from HQO and AFHTO members and partners. Follow-up after hospitalization: Please join your fellow teams in tracking and reporting follow-up after hospitalization in a way that reflects all the follow-up work done by any member of your team in any way. There are standard EMR tools and work-flow processes to improve consistency in this measure across AFHTO in time for review in D2D 4.1. Recognizing and enhancing the value of the EMR: Minister Eric Hoskins and eHealth Ontario have received Ed Clark’s review of Ontario’s Digital Health Assets, which confirms the significant and ongoing value of digital health infrastructure, and have accepted all of his recommendations in principle. In our submission to Mr. Clark, AFHTO noted the need for continued EMR support and spread of the QIDS Partnership model, stressing the importance of a digital health strategy to move beyond pockets of innovation.

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Consider using D2D data for your QIP and annual operating plan: D2D 4.1 will be released in early 2017. You’ll be able to incorporate refreshed data from your new Primary Care Practice Report and use your updated results in your annual program and quality improvement plans. Keep an eye on this page for updates. Speaking of program planning, an updated Program Indicator Catalogue will be coming in January to help you select indicators for your Schedule A report that are more in line with evidence and what your peers are using. Check out the Catalogue and other resources here. Help for your patients with depression: Now that you can identify patients with depression in your EMR (thanks to the standardized query for depression), you may want to be part of a CAMH project to better manage depression and depressive symptoms. It builds on the STOP smoking cessation program that most AFHTO members are already part of. Check out what other teams are doing to get even better at all kinds of things. The AFHTO 2016 Bright Lights winners, poster and concurrent-session presentations are now posted, as are the abstracts from Health Quality Ontario’s 2016 Health Quality Transformation conference, and the winners of the 2016 Minister’s Medals and Honour Roll. There’s a good chance somebody was doing something that might work for you!

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Are you getting the most out of your EMR? The EMR Progress Assessment (EPA) from OntarioMD will show you where you’re at and help you develop a plan to get where you want to be. NEW: QIDS Specialists can now access this tool. If your EMR could show you which patients had depression, how would you make their care even better? Our standardized, tested EMR query can get you started towards building a registry for patients with depression. When your EMR works for you, you can do even better for your patients. Having difficulty finding out who’s getting vaccinated outside your office? Want help sending vaccination records to Public Health? Read how FHT doctors and pharmacy owners collaborated to create a tool that addresses these and other data-sharing challenges. EVEN BETTER: The tool will also help you review your patients’ medications and ensure they get their colon check kits. EMR data quality saves lives AND wins awards! Powassan and Area FHT was awarded “poster of distinction” at HQT for their story about how EMR data quality saves lives. Other measurement highlights from the AFHTO conference: Watch the Bright Lights videos to see the great work happening in teams across the province to enhance care. Concurrent session, poster, and plenary presentations are also available on the AFHTO website. Submit your evaluation of the conference: AFHTO’s annual conference is the best learning and networking opportunity for people who work in and with primary care teams. Please help us to continue, and to continuously improve – if you didn’t fill in the form at the conference, please take a moment to do so now.

Help spread the word about D2D – invite others to sign up for the eBulletin. 

You can now print the D2D report – even if you didn’t contribute data! You can create a printed version of your team and peer group’s data from the interactive D2D web page. If you didn’t contribute data, you can still print out the performance of your preferred peer group for comparison. This makes it easier to share D2D with others. See a sample printout here. Need help with the interactive D2D web page? View the launch webinar from September 29^th for more information about how to use the D2D platform. Calling all EDs: Please complete the D2D survey even if you didn’t contribute data. The survey results help spread the word about the progress AFHTO members are making to advance primary care . Check out the D2D booth at the AFHTO conference! Pick up a special treat, resources about D2D 4.0, tools to increase access to EMR data for improvement and tips to win exciting prizes in the D2D Scavenger Hunt. Health Quality Ontario releases Measuring Up 2016: The goal of Measuring Up is to provide data to drive accountability and improvement. This year’s report gives the broadest look at health care quality to date and points out areas the system can focus on for improvement. Preparing for your 2017-2018 Quality Improvement Plan (QIP)? Check out a recording of a webinar that Health Quality Ontario recently hosted to help primary care teams prepare for their upcoming QIPs.