Health Quality Connect

The latest news from Health Quality Ontario

Let's Make Our Health System Healthier

These six domains of health care quality can be used by everyone as we work together to improve.

NEW REPORT: HEALTH IN THE NORTH

On April 18, we launched our latest report about health equity in Ontario's north.

Health in the North looks at the health status of people living in Ontario’s North East and North West Local Health Integration Network regions, the concerns and challenges faced by First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples as well as francophone populations in Ontario’s north. It also includes efforts underway to improve access to care for people living in Ontario’s north, such as Aboriginal Health Access Centres, telemedicine and virtual critical care.

HEALTH EQUITY IN NORTHERN ONTARIO: SUMMIT

In partnership with representatives who live in Northern Ontario, we’re helping to develop a strategy to improve health equity, specific to this region. The vision is that all northerners have equal opportunities for health, including access to appropriate, timely, high-quality health care, regardless of where they live, what they have or who they are.

To inform the strategy, we’re holding a summit May 25, 2017. We will share the strategy in a future issue of Health Quality Connect. Stay Tuned.

READ ABOUT THE FIRST SUMMIT IN NOVEMBER

CHOOSING WISELY FOR BETTER CARE

When it comes to medical tests and procedures, less can sometimes be better. According to a new report, Spotlight on Leaders of Change. Released in partnership with Choosing Wisely Canada, Ontario health care providers are successfully working to provide and improve quality care by reducing unnecessary care to patients across Ontario.

HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENTS OPEN FOR PUBLIC FEEDBACK

We develop assessments of new and existing health care services and medical devices and include recommendations on whether they should be publicly funded.

We currently have two draft health technology assessments open for feedback:

1. A draft recommendation on a robotic system used to facilitate the surgical removal of the prostate.
2. A draft recommendation on Lumbosacral Dorsal Rhizotomy, a surgical procedure for children with spastic cerebral palsy.

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PLANS HAVING AN IMPACT

Congratulations to the more than 1,000 healthcare organizations who submitted their Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs) for 2017/18.

These plans show how organizations in the various sectors are translating the principles of quality care to make real change at the community level.

This year saw the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network pilot a partnership across the region to submit Collaborative Quality Improvement Plans.