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

Read about what makes a quality health system

Change Day Ontario: Celebrating Compassionate Quality Care 

With more than 6,000 pledges made by caregivers, patients and providers to help improve compassionate quality health care, we thank everyone who made Change Day Ontario a success.

Our Twitter chat, held on November 17th – Change Day – drew great discussion and gave us ideas for how to inspire even more change next year. 

Improving Surgical Quality in Ontario  

Our latest report examines how an international quality improvement program is helping various hospitals in Ontario make surgeries safer, and how well these hospitals compare to their international peers on surgical quality. To learn more about these and other findings, read Quality Surgery: Improving Surgical Care in Ontario. 

Family Physicians: Sign Up for MyPractice

MyPractice reports (formerly called primary care practice reports) give family physicians a confidential informative perspective of their individual practice aimed at helping them with pain management. Have you signed up to receive yours? 

You can also see how your patients are doing with their cancer screening and diabetes management – and learn how they’re using other health services, like emergency departments. 

This is just one tool to support providers across the health system managing pain with patients. Click here to learn more about other pain management supports.

Patient Relations Tools and Resources

Patient feedback, complaints and concerns can be a tremendous source of insight and a driver for positive change. Here are resources to help improve your patient relations efforts: 

• New: Patient relations measurement and public reporting
• A guide for hospitals for engaging patients and caregivers about your patient relations process

Learn how these tools can support your planning for the 2018/19 Quality Improvement Plan at the QIP Patient Relations webinar on November 28, 2017. 

Share Your Thoughts on Two Draft Quality Standards

Quality standards outline for clinicians and patients what quality care looks like.  Your feedback is important in helping us to create useful products:  

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Osteoarthritis

Tell us what you think before December 11th, 2017.

Workplace Violence Prevention through Quality Improvement

Workplace violence is a high priority within Ontario’s health sector, which is why it will be included in the 2018/19 Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs). It will be a mandatory indicator for the hospital sector and a narrative question for all sectors. To help fulfill these requirements:

• Read this guidance for hospitals,
• Browse Quality Compass for more information, tools, and resources, and 
• Join a webinar for hospitals on December 12, 2017 – register here.

Also, in December, a Health Quality Ontario workplace violence report, based on the 2017/18 Quality Improvement Plans, will be released. The report will highlight the positive work that organizations across the system are doing to reduce and prevent violent incidences and boost safety for staff and patients.

Looking for Tools to Support Your Patient Engagement Efforts?

Browse our online hub of Patient Engagement Tools and Resources with our new search bar. You can access tools on health literacy, how to support a patient advisory council, and more. These curated resources from around the world can help you integrate patient engagement into your practice. 

Four New Health Technology Assessments 

We reviewed and assessed four health care services and medical devices. Read our recommendations on whether these should be publicly funded:

• Psychotherapy for major depressive disorder & generalized anxiety disorder
• Electrical stimulation for patients with pressure injuries
• Retinal prosthetics for retinitis pigmentosa
• Subcutaneous immunoglobulin home treatment for immunodeficiency disorder

Share your Thoughts on Measuring Up 2017 

As an organization focused on quality, it’s important we step back and evaluate the impact of our work and identify opportunities for improvement. In October, we released Measuring Up 2017 – our yearly report on the performance of Ontario’s health system. 

We welcome your feedback. Please take a moment to complete a brief survey that will help inform future reporting.