In this Issue:
- Understanding the Role of Primary Care in Vaccine Distribution
- Quality Improvement Plans 2022/23
- COVID-19 and Respiratory Virus Test Requisition Form
- Did You Agree to Be Listed On Online Appointment Booking Platform Bleen?
- Quality Standard on Transitions from Youth to Adult Health Care Services
- Recognizing World Delirium Awareness Day
- Developing A Practice Tool for Prescribing Cascades in Primary Care
- Upcoming Webinars
The Role of Primary Care in Vaccine Distribution – Currently recruiting MDs and IHPs!
AFHTO has partnered with Dr. Rachelle Ashcroft on a study focused on understanding how and in what ways primary care contributes to vaccine distribution, challenges experienced by primary care in the transition of vaccine distribution, as well as generating recommendations about primary care’s ongoing and future roles in vaccine distribution, including COVID-19 boosters.
This study will be in the format of focus groups with EDs, MDs, NPs, nurses, QIDSS and IHPs.
- We are actively recruiting MDs. If you are a physician interested in participating, please complete this poll.
- We are also currently recruiting IHPs. If you are an IHP interested in participating, please complete this poll.
For any questions, please connect with Sandeep Gill: sandeep.gill@afhto.ca.
Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs) 2022/23
Content below developed by Ontario Health (Health Quality Ontario)
For the past two years, Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) submissions have been on pause while organizations did the necessary work to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in their communities and regions. It has been a difficult time. While we know focused commitment to quality is vital, we also know that our system is facing unprecedented health human resource challenges and instability related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, we want to clearly convey to you our expectations regarding your Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs) for 2022/23: This year submission of your QIP to Ontario Health will be considered voluntary. Please e-mail QIP@OntarioHealth.ca if you have any questions. As always, the team is here to support you.
This year’s QIPs will focus on a small number of quality issues that are important to the health care system—issues that have been particularly impacted by COVID-19 and need our attention to help support health system recovery. The small number of priority indicators in this year’s QIPs have been developed in consultation with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Long-Term Care, other teams across Ontario Health, and organizational leaders like yourselves. Organizations may also choose to integrate other local issues that are of importance to their communities.
Priority indicators by sector are provided in the Appendix below. Supporting documents, including a QIP guidance document, technical specifications for the indicators, and a snapshot of quality priorities in brief for 2022/23, are also available. QIP Navigator, our online QIP development and submission platform, has been updated in preparation for voluntary submission. As usual, organizations can download pre-populated templates from QIP Navigator to support their QIP development process.
Individual organizations who choose to submit their QIPs to Ontario Health are encouraged to do so by April 1, 2022. However, in consideration of the current pressures on the health care system, there will be flexibility with timing of submissions and QIP Navigator will be kept open until June 30, 2022.
This is the first year that organizations that are part of an OHT will work to submit their organizational-level QIP while also contributing to their OHT’s cQIP. For that reason, and because organizations are continuing to respond to COVID-19, we have limited the number of focus areas for both the cQIP and the organizational-level QIP. Organizations that wish to reflect their cQIP work in their QIP may also include the cQIP indicators in their organizational QIP.
Annual Planning Materials:
Please see below for further clarifications by the Ministry of Health, on behalf of Fernando Tavares, A/ Program Manager Primary Health Care Branch
In follow up to the enclosed distribution from Ontario Health regarding the submission of this year’s Quality Improvement Plans. We wanted to confirm that the Ministry is supportive of Ontario Health’s plan to make this year’s submission voluntary and confirm that teams are not contractually required to submit this report for 2022-23.
We continue to encourage all organizations who choose to complete this work to develop and post your 2022/23 QIP on your website and share it with your administrative staff, clinicians, and patients/residents and their family members.
Further Supports:
COVID-19 and Respiratory Virus Test Requisition Form
Please find the Public Health Ontario COVID-19 and Respiratory Form Virus Test Requisition Form adapted to Telus PSS and OSCAR EMRs here.
If your team has this form implemented within Accuro, please reach out to Sandeep Gill: Sandeep.gill@afhto.ca.
Did You Agree to Be Listed on Online Appointment Booking Platform Bleen?
Recently it has come to our attention that many AFHTO member organizations are listed as clinics for patients to book an appointment online on the Bleen platform. We strongly advise you to review the list of clinics here to see if your team is on the list, as this solution is not aligned to the service standard.
For any associated privacy concerns, please reach out to the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC). If your team did not agree to be listed on this website and would like to be removed, please directly reach out to Bleen via phone: 1-866-943-9480 and via an online form here. We have brought this issue to Ontario Health’s attention, and they are working with OntarioMD and the Ministry to bring a resolution to the issue.
We also encourage you to take this opportunity for patient education if you receive any appointment requests through this platform and advise patients on approved appointment booking practices for your team. If you are interested in exploring funding opportunities for online booking, please click here. For any questions, please connect with Sandeep Gill: sandeep.gill@afhto.ca.
Content below developed by Ontario Health (Health Quality Ontario)
New! Quality Standard on Transitions From Youth to Adult Health Care Services
In February 2022, Ontario Health released the Transitions From Youth to Adult Health Care Services quality standard, developed in partnership with the Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health.
When young people transition from youth to adult health care, they are at increased risk for negative health outcomes as they adapt to new services, people, and processes.
The quality standard is an evidence-based resource that outlines what high-quality care looks like during this critical time. It can be used to help young people, families, and caregivers know what to ask for in their care; to help health care professionals know what care they should be offering; and to help health care organizations measure, assess, and improve their performance in caring for patients.
Please share this quality standard within your network and stay tuned for information on an upcoming webinar on this topic. For more information, contact qualitystandards@ontariohealth.ca.
Recognizing World Delirium Awareness Day
Delirium is often a complication of respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia, in older adults. It is a sudden change in how someone thinks, acts, or understands what’s happening to them. See the quality standard addressing what quality care looks like for delirium and accompanied patient guide, from Ontario Health and Provincial Geriatrics Leadership Ontario and more resources here.
Developing A Practice Tool for Prescribing Cascades in Primary Care
Are you an Ontario physician, nurse practitioner or pharmacist who provides primary care as part of an interprofessional team?
Are you interested in reducing medication-related harm?
A University of Toronto research team wants to learn from clinicians working in interprofessional teams about your experiences and thoughts on interventions that may help to address prescribing cascades.
What is a prescribing cascade?
Prescribing cascades occur when a new medication is prescribed to treat the side effects of another medication. These often arise when prescribers attribute patients’ new signs or symptoms to a medical condition rather than a medication side effect. Prescribing cascades are important sources of potentially unnecessary medication use.
What is being asked of me?
– Complete a brief questionnaire (< 10 minutes) and then participate in a up to 1.5-hour discussion group or interview to share your perspectives. You will be invited to participate in a second discussion group or interview (also up to 1.5-hours) if interested.
– A $100 gift card will be provided for each discussion group or interview that is attended.
Do you have questions or want to get involved?
Please email the team at rx.cascades@utoronto.ca or contact them at (416) 978-4838. This study has been reviewed by the University of Toronto Research Ethics Board (#42135).
Upcoming Webinars
Stories from the Ivory Tower, Mar 22, 2022, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Register here
In March 2022, HSPN is presenting stories from the ivory tower of university-based evaluation of Ontario Health Teams (OHTs). Evaluators from the HSPN have spent the better part of the past year observing the development of OHTs with an aim to understand:
- What factors contribute to the successful implementation and sustainability of OHTs?
- What adaptations are OHTs making to improve function/performance/outcomes?
- What are the barriers to OHTs’ successful implementation?
MyPractice: Primary Care Report: Using Data for Improvement – a focus on using the cancer screening indicators to drive improvements in patient care, Thursday March 31st, 2022, 12–1 p.m.
Ontario Health is hosting a webinar for primary care providers on using the cancer screening indicators in the MyPractice: Primary Care report to drive improvements in patient care. This is the third of an ongoing accredited series that will focus on using data from the MyPractice: Primary Care report for quality improvement. This 1-credit-per-hour Group Learning program has been certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Ontario Chapter for up to 1.0 Mainpro+Ⓡ credits. The program is part of a series that has been certified for up to 4 Mainpro+ credits.
Register here
AFHTO Webinar – Ontario Health And Primary Care, MHA CoE And HCNS
Friday, April 1, from 11 AM to 12:30 PM
Register here
AFHTO has arranged a members’ update and conversation on primary care with Ontario Health, the Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence (MHA CoE), and Healthcare Navigation Service (HCNS). Five speakers will be joining us on Friday, April 1, from 11 AM to 12:30 PM.
We will be joined by the following speakers:
- Sacha Bhatia, Population Health and Value Based Health Systems Executive, Ontario Health
- Zahra Ismail, Senior Director, Primary Care and Social Determinants, Ontario Health
- Danyal Martin, Director, Clinical Programs, Mental Health & Addictions Centre of Excellence, Ontario Health
- Graham Woodward, VP, Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence, Ontario Health
- Mala Shastri, Lead, Co-Design, Patient Populations and Discovery, Ontario Health
Members are encouraged to join the webinar and are welcome to submit questions by March 21. However, the floor will also be open for Q&As with all speakers, and any we do not get to during the webinar will be followed up on.
This webinar is open to all members.
Diabetes Care: Tools and Resources to Support Mental Health Needs, Friday April 8, 2022, 12:30–1:30 p.m.
Ontario Health is hosting a webinar for endocrinologists, primary care providers, and diabetes educators on screening for mental health needs among people with diabetes, and new, provincially-funded resources available to support them. This is the first of an ongoing series that will highlight Ontario Health’s three diabetes quality standards. Register here.
Moderator: Dr. David Kaplan
Panelists:
- Marcia Ross, Lived Experience Advisor
- Nina Hoyt, Nurse Practitioner, Health Sciences North
- Dr. Geetha Mukerji, Endocrinologist, Women’s College Hospital
- Leslie Johnson, Regional Director Mental Health and Addictions, Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences
The links to the diabetes quality standards can be accessed here: Type 1 Diabetes, Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes, and Diabetes in Pregnancy.
In Case You Missed It: Check out eBulletin #115 or other back issues here!
Questions? Comments? Contact us at improve@afhto.ca.
