HEALTH QUALITY CONNECT IS GROUNDED IN THE SIX DOMAINS OF HEALTH CARE QUALITY...

Read about what makes a quality health system

Diagnostic Imaging and Emergency Department Wait Times Now Available

New: Ontarians can now access information about wait times for emergency departments and for diagnostic imaging, such as MRIs and CT scans on our website. 

HQOntario.ca also reports on wait times for surgeries and procedures such as hip and knee replacements, cancer and cardiac surgeries.

The goal is to provide transparent wait times data all in one place. 

This information can also be found via a link on Ontario.ca/health.

Three New Quality Standards Now Available 

We have released three new quality standards outlining for patients and clinicians what quality care looks like for people who have:

• DIABETIC FOOT ULCERS
• VENOUS LEG ULCERS
• PRESSURE INJURIES

MyPractice: Primary Care Report Update

On November 30th, family physicians received new information about their practice, to learn about opioid prescribing patterns and other indicators. Log-in to access your MyPractice: Primary Care report if you haven't already. 

If you’re not already subscribed, sign-up by December 31st, 2017 to receive your confidential report in January 2018. 

Patient Oriented Discharge Summary (PODS): New tool spreads across province

Patient Oriented Discharge Summary (PODS) is a proven tool that helps patients better manage their care after being discharged from the hospital.

With support from ARTIC (Adopting Research to Improve Care), 27 Ontario hospitals are adopting PODS which is expected to benefit 50,000 patients in the first year. We celebrated this exciting news at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in November. 

ARTIC will be looking for new projects to support in early 2018. Stay tuned for news about the call for proposals in the new year. 

Email ARTIC@HQOntario.ca to sign-up for updates. 

Quality Improvement Plans 

Each April, more than 1,000 organizations from the hospital, primary care, home care and long-term care sectors submit their annual Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs). New priorities, guidance materials and indicator technical specifications for the 2018/19 fiscal year are now available. 

This year you'll see that QIP priorities include workplace violence prevention and the impact of opioids in Ontario. 

Home Care and Long-Term Care Guides to Improve Complaints Processes

Two new guides for Home and Community Care and Long-Term Care provide quality improvement tools to improve client and resident complaints processes. 

These guides will also support teams developing their 2018/19 Quality Improvement Plans to address new indicators measuring timeliness to acknowledge complaints. 

Spotlight on Margo Twohig: Minister’s Medal Award Winner

Margo Twohig won the inaugural Patient, Family, Caregiver Minister's Medal Award for her extensive patient advisory experience - one of three awards presented in October. She is currently the Co-Chair of the Patient and Family Advisory Council at North York General Hospital

We asked Margo how other healthcare organizations can work with patients and families to deliver higher quality care. See what she said on Quorum -  an online forum for the quality improvement community to share, learn and innovate together.

Inspired by Margo’s story? Learn about patient engagement and ways to get involved on our online tools and resources hub.

Equity and Improvement at the Team, Organization and System Levels 

Adalsteinn Brown and Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull share their thoughts on approaches to improve equity at the team, organizational and system levels in health care.

Much of our discussion around if and how we can improve health equity gets stuck on statements like “it’s complicated,” “most of it is beyond the health system,” or “it will take a very long time.” These sorts of responses can be demotivating...

Read more on Quorum - our online community to support quality improvement.