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Tag: Using Data to Improve Care

Diabetes – Potential actions related to processes of care
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:
- Discuss with your team how adding IHPs to the team improves diabetes care
- Get started on a diabetes program – leverage the program planning resources developed by your peers to apply to your diabetes program
- Encourage your clinicians to use the healthcare provider tools developed by the Canadian Diabetes Association
- Learn from the Sunnybrook FHT about a program they developed to help clinicians understand first hand what patients experience living with diabetes
- Learn how to transition a gestational diabetes program from a hospital based model of care to primary care
- Share your team’s approach to diabetes management with the Diabetes Community of Practice. Contact us for more information on how to join.
January 21, 2016
Primary Care Practice Reports available for FHT Executive Directors

Health Quality Ontario has informed us they are launching team-level access to ICES data for Executive Directors. There is also the possibility of using them to access data for D2D. Discussions are underway to confirm this possibility which will make it that much easier for your team to contribute data to D2D 3.0. The consent page is now live with a deadline of October 30th, 2015 for delivery to teams by mid-December. Please sign up using your official email address to make registration easier (as this should match Ministry records). For further information please see below. …………………………………………………………….. Everyone providing primary care to Ontarians is dedicated to quality improvement. Now, Executive Directors working in Family Health Teams have access to team-level data as well as trends and change ideas through Health Quality Ontario’s group-level Primary Care Practice Report. These team-level reports will provide you with information on your team’s demographics, case mix, patterns of patient use of service, the health status of your practice population, and information on specific chronic disease management indicators, as well as related quality improvement change ideas. They share how your Family Health Team is performing compared to other teams in your Local Health Integration Network and across the province. They do not have physician-level data but they do have data at the level of the physician group (e.g. FHN, FHO). Physicians can get their own data through a similar process (see below). Primary Care Practice Reports are confidential. Your team’s reports will not be shared with others. It can be used to inform quality improvement work and your Quality Improvement Plans. Before you sign up, inform the physicians in your practice that you’ll be receiving a report with aggregate data for the team. Then sign up to receive your report by visiting HQO’s website. You will receive your first report in December. These Primary Care Practice Reports, which are now being introduced for Executive Directors, have been and still are available to individual physicians who work in primary care and long-term care settings. Encourage physicians working in your Family Health Team to sign up to receive their personalized Primary Care Practice Report. They can also watch this video to hear from family physicians already using this report to help drive change in their practice. The Primary Care Practice Report has been created by Health Quality Ontario and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, in partnership with the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario.

September 15, 2015
Accessing physician-specific data
Over 100 teams contributed to D2D 2.0 in June 2015 and it looks like people are using it! Readership stats show that there is an increase in regular viewing of the D2D 2.0 webpage over that of D2D 1.0. One thing we know is that people end up wanting to drill down into their data – often with physician-specific data.

Here are 3 ways your team can access physician-specific data:
1. Sign up physicians for access to their breast, cervical, and colorectal screening rates through the CCO Screening Activity Report (SAR) portal.
2. Sign up physicians for their own Primary Care Practice Report from the HQO portal to compare their data to regional and provincial sources (this report contains most of the D2D indicators that came from ICES data).
3. Enrol your team in EMRALD or CPCSSN for better access to EMR data to improve performance.
  1. EMRALD is a database, housed at ICES, derived from electronic medical records (EMRs) maintained by family physicians. Data collection occurs twice a year and does not interfere with day-to-day clinic operations. Details on how to participate are on the ICES website.
  2. CPCSSN is the first pan-Canadian multi-disease public and population health surveillance system. CPCSSN networks across the country collect health data from EMRs every three months, which allows for health patterns to be detected in a timely way. To participate in CPCSSN contact your regional network.
ContactCarol Mulder for more information.
July 23, 2015
How are teams using data to improve?
Using data to improve can be as simple as starting a conversation. Those conversations can lead to all kinds of ways to improve. Maybe the improvements are first about getting better access to your data or cleaning up your EMR data. All these improvements eventually lead to better care. Some of the ways teams are doing this are listed below. Your team may already have done these things a while ago – or maybe your team is trying them out now. Either way, you know who you are but probably nobody else does. So please consider the following ways to use data to improve and please consider sharing your story so others can learn from and with you.

1. Talking about data
- Bringing D2D to the Board to set a focus for QI work for the next year.
- Setting up a QI committee to keep track of progress on indicators in your QIP or D2D.
- Posting your team’s (or maybe individual doctor’s) performance compared to peers in the lunch room.
- Reaching out to peers with better performance on indicators of interest in D2D.
- Deciding what indicators your team can track to know if their programs are making a difference to patients.
2. Getting better access to data
- Enrolling your team in EMRALD or CPCSSN for better access to EMR data to improve performance.
- Signing up physicians for their own profile reports (eg from HQO portal or CCO SAR) to drill down into D2D performance.
- Running the COPD query developed by QIDSS to get started on a COPD registry.
- Printing cards for patients to hand in to you when they get their flu shot somewhere else (so you can update their EMR record).
3. Improving data quality
- Offering a pizza party to the physician with the highest % of patients with complete data for smoking status.
- Moving to monthly or quarterly patient experience surveys instead of annual so you can better track the impact of changes you are making.
- Trying out tablets or email or phone calls to make it easier to patient experience surveys more often.
- Hiring a student to clean up EMR data about cancer screening.
- Reconciling your rostered patient list to the MOHLTC list and maybe even creating space to enrol more patients.
- Adding questions to your patient experience survey to make it easier for you to compare to your peers.
July 13, 2015
AFHTO 2014 Conference: Theme 6 – Using data to improve transitions of care and care coordination
Theme Description: Primary care providers collect and share patient information to help patients move safely and efficiently through the health care system. Presentations in this stream will share experiences to increase our collective capacity for:
- collecting more consistent data AND using the data we already have more safely and effectively (even if it isn’t consistent);
- making personal health records available to patients;
- knowing when and what personal patient information could and should be shared between providers; and
- getting the most out of existing technology, even while working to make it better.
A6-a Utilizing EMRs to Support Cancer Screening Primary care providers (PCPs) play a crucial role in the journey of a cancer patient, both in ensuring that patients get screened for cancer and navigating them through the healthcare system should they require care. The focus of this presentation will be on providing PCPs with information on tools and resources to support cancer screening through the use of current functionality in their EMRs. A6-b Transitioning between EMR Systems The NYFHT Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) Committee formed an EMR Task Force to review the FHT’s goals in moving toward a ‘one EMR and one server’ system. The EMR Task Force began by creating a comprehensive needs/readiness survey to understand current and future EMR requirements, which included readiness to change. Based on findings of the comprehensive needs assessment, the EMR taskforce developed recommendations to support physicians in their vendor procurement process. This process is still ongoing at this time. B6 Using Run Charts to Evaluate Quality Improvement Using run charts to analyze data over time simplifies the analysis of improvements made to processes or systems. They allow teams to easily identify if the quality improvement initiatives are obtaining the desired results. Once improvement has been achieved, run charts allow teams to monitor if the improvement is being sustained. This presentation will provide attendees with an example of how a Family Health Team has modified the reporting format of their indicators by replacing a colour-coded data table with run charts. C6 Mining for data gold: how to recycle imperfect EMR data into useful information EMR data are problematic. Quality can be poor and free text/unstandardized data are often difficult to query. However, many FHTs have already been able to derive significant value from currently existing data. This can involve activities such as querying data in EMRs (“front end data”), supplementing EMR data with external information (for example, the provincial Screening Activity Report or SAR) or participating in projects such as CPCSSN where cleaned/standardized data are returned to FHTs or clusters of FHTs (“back end data” for FHT data warehousing). As an example, we are using data on breast cancer received from the provincial SAR to update and standardize both personal and family history of breast cancer. This will allow us to more accurately categorize patients and refer them for high risk breast cancer screening in the future. D6 Optimizing Quality of EMR Data to Improve Care: Leading the Human Side of Change The difficult task of persuading individuals and groups to change their behaviour has been addressed by many existing change management strategies in the literature. It has been estimated that 70% of change initiatives fail mainly because change plans do not consider human behaviours. The aim of this presentation is to describe change management strategies widely used in healthcare industry that will improve EMR data quality in your healthcare facility. D6-b Primary care performance measurement — why bother? Primary care providers are facing an ever- increasing number of options and obligations related to performance reporting. This session outlines a measurement approach that can help focus attention on what really matters to primary care providers: the relationship with our patients and our ability to deliver the care that they value. It will show how D2D and the Starfield model consider disease-specific outcomes (e.g. “What’s your A1C?”) in the context of the relationship between the patient and provider, as distinct from other measurement models. E6 Using Hospital Data: Doing Analyses and Building Warehouses 1. Using Hospital Emergency Department Data for Quality Improvement in Family Health Teams The Quality Improvement Decision Support Specialist (QIDSS) for Upper Canada FHT, Athens District FHT, Community & Primary Health Care – Community FHT, and Prescott FHT receives hospital data on a monthly basis from Brockville General Hospital (BGH) and Perth & Smiths Falls District Hospital (PSFDH). During the presentation, the QIDSS will outline how data is received from hospitals, the difference analyses that can be performed on the above data, and how this is used to promote quality improvement in FHTs. 2. Analyzing health data across care systems: The NYFHT – NYGH Joint Data Warehouse Patients access care in multiple settings, including hospital and primary care; this is especially common for complex patients. Despite this, data about care are usually contained in electronic silos. Joining and combining health data across systems in order to more fully analyze care is challenging. We generated the first database containing joint data, which will enable quality improvement and research activities to be undertaken. F6 Advancing and Leveraging the Investment Value of EMRs – Project ALIVE Good quality EMR data can be a major enabler to supporting transitions of care and improving patient care coordination. Within primary care the level of maturity relative to information management and support tends not to be well developed. With a focus on adoption and innovation, this presentation will share a hands on practical guide of enhancing the quality of data in EMRs.
October 17, 2014
AFHTO Conference 2013 Poster Displays

Theme 1 – Leadership and governance for quality 1 The Role of an Interprofessional, Cross-Sectoral Planning and Priorities Committee in the Successful Function and Evolution of an FHT Theme 2 – Using data to improve care 2 Using EMR as a partner: Can an EMR system make you smarter about Diabetes care? 3 Lifting the Load: Utilizing University Students in Primary Care for Programming and Quality Improvement 4 How Quality Improvement and Decision Support Specialists (QIDSS) can help transform care 5 Laying the Foundation for Primary Care Performance Measurement in Ontario 6 The ABCs of M&M in a Family Health Team 7 Using EMR Data for Self Reflection and Facilitate Change to Enhance Patient Care (poster to follow) 8 Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Post-hospital Admission Visits to the Primary Care Provider 9 Healthy Weight Surveillance Pilot Study Theme 4 – Integration: building the team beyond the FHT 10 Standardization Committee: The Answer to Effective Utilization of Registered Nurses to Full Scope of Practice (poster to follow) 11 Evaluation of the Integration of the Physiotherapy Practitioner into the Toronto Western Hospital Family Health Team 12 Managing Systems Transitions – Integrated Hospital Transition Management Initiative – Poster Presentation 13 INR Clinics: the next step 14 The Nutrition Resource Centre as a Means for Collaboration between Family Health Teams and Public Health 15 Expanding Our QI team to Improve Patient Outcomes and Enhance Provider Engagement and Collaboration: Public Private Collaboration (PPC) (poster to follow) 16 Supporting Caregivers Through Problem Solving Therapy 17 Driving Transformation By Seeing The System Through The Eyes of Patients and Their Families Theme 5 – Advances in health promotion and chronic disease management 18 AFib Innovation Program (poster to follow) 19 Reducing CVD risk factors through Fostering Self-Management Skills using an Interprofessional Team in a Shared Medical Visit Setting 20 Smoking Cessation Program at St. Michael’s Academic Family Health Team (poster to follow) 21 Readiness – A Key Concept in Mental Health Intake Assessments 22 Colon Cancer Screening: A Family Health Team Approach to Improve Patient Awareness and Access (poster to follow) 23 EPIC: Expanding Paramedicine in the Community 24 Exploring Hand Hygiene in Primary Care (poster to follow) 25 Evaluation of a nursing led chronic disease management program 26 Group Visit Implementation and Program Evaluation: Interprofessional Well-Baby Group Visits (poster to follow) 27 Effect of’Beyond the Fork’ program on chronic disease self-management: a pilot RCT 28 Partnering with Patients in the Development of a Trauma Program (poster to follow) 29 Using a Novel Instructional Video on the Fecal Occult Blood Test to improve Rates of Colon Cancer Ccreening in Low Risk Patients: a pilot study at the Toronto Western Hospital Family Health Team 30 Meeting Parental Needs for Infant Feeding Education with Well Baby Group Visits (WBGV) (poster to follow) 31 The 4 Ps of Effective Health Promotion in Family Health Teams: Enhancing Patient Engagement in Community-based Programming. 32 Provider Education Program: Evidence-Based Asthma Knowledge Transfer into Primary Care Practice 33 Improved Cancer Screening Rates with Introduction of an EMR 34 Right Care, Right Time, Right Place: A Lung Health Collaborative in Primary Care (poster to follow) 35 Some Injuries You Can’t Kiss and Make Better: Fall Prevention in Young Children 36 Diabetes Group Visits – A Collaborative & Supportive Approach to Patient Care 37 Progress Beyond The Scale: Using Data Collection to Provide Patient and System Level Feedback in Healthy Weight Management Program 38 Health Coaching for patients with diabetes: impact on interdisciplinary teams 39 The Ontario Renal Network: Reducing the Impact of Chronic Kidney Disease through Early Detection – A Primary Care Innovation (poster to follow) 40 Bridging the Gap: Increasing cancer screening rates through quality improvement 41 Upstream Solutions for Downstream Congestion 42 See the Difference an HgbA1C Onsite Makes (poster to follow) Theme 6 – Improving care for seniors 43 Guelph Family Health Team Cooking Classes: A “Healthy Bite” closer to prevent and manage chronic disease 44 Evaluating a Health and Social Care Innovation; Findings from the Integrated Home-Based Primary Care (IHBPC) Study 45 Safe Medications And Reviews Taskforce (SMART Seniors Project) – An Interprofessional Collaboration at the St Michael’s Academic Family Health Team 46 Health Equity and Geriatric Care in a Rural Practice 47 Prescribing and Deprescribing in Frail Elderly: Use of an interdisciplinary team to enhance safe medication use in frail and homebound older adults. 48 Medication Reviews for Improving Care in Elderly Family Health Team Patients on Multiple Medications (poster to follow) Theme 7 – Innovation in interprofessional collaborative team implementation 49 The Primary Care Asthma Program (PCAP): A Standardized Program Model for Evidence-based Primary Care Asthma Management in Ontario 50 An Interdisciplinary Approach to Increasing Awareness of RD’s Medical Nutrition Therapy Services 51 Making Patient Safety a Priority: Moving from a culture of blame to learning via narrative 52 Improving Patient Access to Care: Removing Barriers to Receiving Assessment and Education by Health Disciplines of the St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team 53 The Patient Engagement Project: Lessons Learned 54 The Value of an Optometry-integrated Primary Care Model to Lowering Risk of Blindness and Augment Chronic Disease Management 55 Investigating the role of a NP and a PA in a Family Health Team 56 Strengthening the Circle of Mental Health Care: Social Work and Psychologists in Collaboration: A Panel of Physician/Social Worker and Psychologist 57 The “Missing Link”: The Integration of Registered Kinesiologists in Primary Care 58 Integrating Palliative Care into an Academic Family Health Team 59 Longitudinal Study of Mental Health Services at Summerville Family Health Team 60 “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning”: An Insomnia Reversal Program for Primary Care 61 Primary Health Care: Chiropractic Collaboration (poster to follow) 62 A Collaborative Approach in Integrating Evidence Based Practice in Smoking Cessation- A Paradigm Shift (poster to follow) 63 Evaluation & Lessons Learned from the Interprofessional Memory Clinic: Loyalist Family Health Team – impact on the patients, care partners, health care providers and community partnerships (poster to follow) 70 PAASSPORT: Primary Care Advanced Access Study: Spreading the Practice and Optimizing interprofessional Resources and Treatment Theme 8 – Meaningful use of EMRs 64 Advanced Access – Same Day Next Day Physician Access 65 The McMaster Pain Assistant: The why, what and how of a new EMR tool that teaches. 66 Updating and Standardizing Nutrition Handouts on the EMR 67 Supporting the implementation of the Canadian Guideline for Safe and Effective Use of Opioids for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain in primary care 68 Preventing Clinically Significant Drug/Disease Interactions in Primary Care

October 24, 2013
Advancing use of data and measurement in FHTs
This is an update for AFHTO members on activities to advance use of data and measurement in FHTs (scroll below for more information):
- Dr. Rick Glazier, Lead Scientist in ICES Primary Care and Population Health Program, joins AFHTO board
- AFHTO recruitment is underway for a QIDSS Project Manager
- AFHTO to establish QIDSS Steering Committee
- Status of approvals for new QIDSS positions in FHTs
- Practice Solutions Suite (PSS) EMR Working Group is collaborating to resolve common problems for users
- AFHTO Conference 2013 features streams in using data to improve care and meaningful use of EMRs
Dr. Rick Glazier, Lead Scientist in ICES Primary Care and Population Health Program, joins AFHTO board

AFHTO’s strategic direction gives priority to ensuring FHTs are supported to measure and improve the quality of care they deliver. AFHTO’s board is thrilled that Rick Glazier, one of the key forces advancing the use of data for improvement in Ontario, agreed to fill a mid-term vacancy on the board.

AFHTO recruitment is underway for a QIDSS Project Manager

Following from AFHTO’s Recommendations on the Optimal Configuration of the Quality Improvement Decision Support Specialist (QIDSS) Role, AFHTO has just launched recruitment for a QIDSS Project Manager to coordinate start-up activities among the FHTs that will host QIDSS positions, and foster on-going mentoring, coordination and collaboration among the QIDSSs. The Project Manager will also support the QIDSS Steering Committee (see below) to achieve successful completion of QSC-approved projects, communications and provision of agreed support services to all participating FHTs.

AFHTO to establish QIDSS Steering Committee

Recommendations on the Optimal Configuration of the Quality Improvement Decision Support Specialist (QIDSS) Role also presented the need for a QIDSS Steering Committee (QSC). This body will set specific project priorities and objectives to advance best practice and optimize performance measurement capacity across the FHT sector. Once it’s known which FHTs will be hosting or participating in QIDSS partnerships, AFHTO members will be invited to nominate candidates for QSC.

Status of approvals for new QIDSS positions in FHTs

FHT budget proposals are part way through the Ministry’s internal approval process. FHTs would receive confirmation of funding with their budget approvals – best guess is this will be about the beginning of July. We anticipate seeing 32 – 33 positions allocated, to be shared amongst groups of FHTs.

Practice Solutions Suite (PSS) Working Group is collaborating to resolve common problems for users

The PSS Working Group was born out of user desire to get better value from this EMR, deployed in about half of all FHTs. With leadership from a couple of FHT EDs to get this off the ground, the PSS Working Group now comprises 22 members from FHTs and from TELUS, the parent company for PSS EMR. A progress report went out last week to the leaders of FHTs using PSS. (If your FHT uses PSS and did not receive this e-mail, please contact info@afhto.ca to be added to this distribution list.)

AFHTO Conference 2013 features streams in using data to improve care and meaningful use of EMRs

There will be plenty to learn on these topics at the AFHTO 2013 Conference, October 22-23 at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto. A highly-experienced working group is currently reviewing over 30 presentation proposals to choose the best for the concurrent sessions on Using Data to Improve Care and Meaningful Use Of EMRs. Conference registration opens in a month.
May 29, 2013
Cancer Screening – Quality Improvement Toolkit
Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) has developed a Cancer Screening Toolkit to help FHTs develop cancer screening quality improvement plans. This toolkit will assist FHTs in planning, implementing, monitoring and reporting on improvements in colorectal, cervical and breast cancer screening. Tools include:
- Cancer Screening Sample Timeline,
- Instructions for developing your QIP based on the Plan, Do, Study, Act principles,
- Planning and Measurement templates
- An Appendix of additional data sources, including the ColonCancerCheck Screening Activity Report (CCC SAR).
While the toolkit provides guidelines on implementing a cancer screening QIP for all three cancer modalities, FHTs can scale back or expand their scope depending on the maturity of their cancer screening practices and other priorities. It is hoped that FHTs who choose to incorporate cancer screening into their 2013/2014 QIP will find the Cancer Screening Toolkit to be useful. Many Thanks to Dr. Suzanne Strasberg, lead physician of the Jane-Finch FHT and regional primary care lead with CCO, who shared this toolkit with AFHTO.
February 25, 2013
Primary Care Metrics now available on the Health Data Branch Portal
Please see the message below from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care regarding primary care data to support development of your Quality Improvement Plans: The Ministry has provided data for several primary care metrics. This data will support development and planning for Quality Improvement Plans and other quality initiatives. Important information on how to access this data: The primary care data is on a special section of the Health Data Branch portal and permission is required to access the data. Please go to https://hsimi.on.ca/hdbportal/user/register to create an account for your organization. When on this page, you will be asked to create a username and password. It is important that you record your username and password, as you will not be able to retrieve it later. When creating a username, please follow the instructions below:
1. For “Organization/Sector”, please indicate the name of your organization (e.g. “Sunnybrook Academic FHT”)
2. For “What areas of the web portal will you access?” Please leave this section blank.
3. For “user type” please select “Health Service Provider”
4. For “Reason for requesting access to the website”, please write, “Primary Care QIP”
For questions about logging into the portal, please contact DDMSupport@ontario.ca. Metrics available:
- Percent of patients who visited the ED for conditions best managed elsewhere (BME)
- Percent of patients/clients who see their primary care provider within 7 days after discharge from hospital for selected conditions
- Hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC)
- Hospital Readmission within 30 days for select CMGs
- Patient admissions (all causes)
- ED visits (all causes)
- Physician house calls
This data is being provided at the organization-level for models that have rostered patients/clients. For CHCs, AHACs and NPLCs who are members of the Association of Ontario Health Centre (AOHC) much of this data will be provided in the ICES Practice Profile. These groups should contact their RDSS or Jennifer Rayner for more information.
February 22, 2013
Update on Ministry initiatives to promote and support quality in primary care
“Faster access and a stronger link to family health care” is one of three key planks in Ontario’s Action Plan for Health Care. To do this, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has intensified focus on improving quality in this sector. Here is an overview and update on Ministry and related initiatives to promote and support quality:
- Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs): As AFHTO reported in a Sept.24 e-mail to members, all FHTs must submit a QIP by April 1. Ministry plans were presented at the AFHTO 2012 Conference. See update below.
- Primary Care Performance Measurement Framework: Health Quality Ontario and the Canadian Institute for Health Information are leading this development. AFHTO e-mails on Nov.7 and 13 invited members to attend an HQO-CIHI webcast on this initiative and give input on priorities for measurement.
- Governance for quality: AFHTO is working with the Ministry, Association of Ontario Health Centres and Canadian Patient Safety Institute on plans to support primary care boards with skills and tools.
- Data and measurement support: AFHTO has been advocating for this critical requirement for quality improvement. The Ministry clearly understands this need and is investigating ways to do this, recognizing fiscal constraints. To support the QIP process, HQO is developing a few standardized patient survey questions and EMR searches for some measures.
Quality Improvement Plans The key facts about QIPs in primary care:
- All inter-disciplinary team-based organizations will be required to submit a QIP to HQO through existing contractual requirements with the Ministry.
- The Ministry (with HQO) will develop a template and guidance material that will be available and applicable to all primary care settings, most likely by January 2013.
- QIPs are to be submitted to HQO by April 1, 2013.
On November 15^th, the Ministry and HQO held a forum with 14 FHTs to get feedback on the design of the QIP template and on the supports required by FHTs to develop and implement QIPs. AFHTO identified 12 individuals who provided a cross-section of: all regions of the province; rural and urban settings; large and small-sized FHTs; all 3 governance types; those experienced in quality improvement planning and those that are not; academic and non-academic FHTs; those focused on aboriginal and francophone populations; and ED, physician, and IHP roles. The AOHC CFHT ED group was invited to name two representatives as well. During the forum Ministry representatives confirmed that QIPs are a tool for improvement. FHTs will be accountable for submitting a plan, however the improvement results will not be used to adjust funding levels. They emphasized – perfection is not the goal – the initial focus will be on getting started. The group was told the purpose of QIPs is to ensure there is a uniform commitment and consistent approach to improving the quality of care delivered to Ontarians. For this reason, the Ministry has identified three quality dimensions for this first round of quality planning – access, integrated and patient-centred – and core set of measures will be provided. Participants noted the dimension of “effectiveness”, i.e. clinical outcomes for chronic disease, should also be included as an option. As well, the group suggested the “access” dimension should go beyond physicians to include same day access to other interprofessional health providers. HQO presented the supports they would provide to build capacity for improving quality. These include live and web-based learning opportunities, programs in Advanced Access and Efficiency and Chronic Disease Management, and a 1-800 “dial-a-specialist” service. FHT participants identified additional needs, in particular the need for standardized EMR queries and other support to get data out of EMRs. Peer training and on-site coaching were also identified as highly desirable supports. HQO committed to consider these ideas within their resource capacity. As reported in AFHTO’s Sept.24 e-mail to members, the Ministry had also committed to reduce administrative reporting on a quarterly and annual basis so as to free-up capacity to focus on quality improvement planning and implementation. Work is underway to streamline the reporting burden on FHTs. The direction of these initiatives are consistent with AFHTO’s vision – that FHTs are recognized by patients, FHT boards and staff, other health organizations, the public at large and their government as an innovative and efficient model for delivering accessible, comprehensive, high-quality, patient-centred primary health care. As the advocate, champion, network, and resource center for FHTs, AFHTO will continue to work to ensure FHTs are well-positioned and appropriately supported to succeed in improving and delivering optimal interprofessional care.
November 19, 2012