Health Quality Connect

WELCOME

Here’s your source for the latest news from Health Quality Ontario. This month, we’ve released reports on health equity and rates of caregiver distress and a new draft recommendation for a health technology assessment. We are also pleased to share details about the Adopting Research to Improve Care (ARTIC) Program's newest project to reduce unnecessary testing.

NEWLY SUBMITTED 2016/17 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PLANS SHARE WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE

More than 1,000 hospitals, interprofessional primary care organizations, Community Care Access Centres and long-term care homes submitted annual Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs) this month, detailing ambitious aims, effective targets and innovative methods for improvement. Many of you shared an incredible wealth of information with us, and we applaud your commitment to ongoing improvement. Over the coming months, a new series of summary reports will highlight important lessons and your success stories to continue promoting collaboration and integration across the province.

SPOTLIGHT ON: HEALTH EQUITY

Ontario's poorest residents pay for their lower income with their health and are more likely to have shorter lifespans, be overdue for screening tests and suffer from multiple chronic conditions. These findings and other real-life stories appear in Income and Health: Opportunities to achieve health equity in Ontario. Watch this video to see one of those stories.

WHO CARES FOR CAREGIVERS? READ OUR NEW REPORT

Rates of stress, anger and depression have more than doubled for friends and family members looking after long-stay home care patients in Ontario, climbing from 15.6% to 33.3% between 2009/10 and 2013/14. The Reality of Caring explores issues behind this distress. This video shares an inside look.

ARTIC PROJECT LAUNCH: CHOOSING WISELY TO IMPROVE QUALITY

Some medical care may be unnecessary or fail to add value. North York General Hospital recently helped demonstrate this point when it implemented Choosing Wisely Canada-recommendations and successfully reduced lab testing by more than 33% in their pre-operative clinic and emergency department. Similarly, Toronto East Health Network successfully reduced urine culture testing in its emergency department by 17%.

Now, with support from the Adopting Research to Improve Care (ARTIC) Program led by the Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario and Health Quality Ontario, Choosing Wisely – An Idea Worth Spreading will be implemented at three new hospital sites within the Joint Centres for Transformative Health Care Innovation (Markham Stouffville Hospital, St. Joseph’s Health Centre Toronto and Southlake Regional Health Centre) and several associated primary care teams also serving those communities.

HEALTH LINKS MAKING PROGRESS ON MORE COORDINATED CARE

To date, Ontario’s Health Links have helped 14,251 complex patients receive Coordinated Care Plans and 24,195 patients access regular and timely primary care. This is just one finding in our most recent quarterly report, which shows how Health Links are more actively recruiting patients, increasing their number of Coordinated Care Plans and working with the primary care sector to connect patients with providers.

OPEN FOR COMMENT

As always, we welcome feedback and want to hear from you before we finalize our public funding recommendations for health technology interventions from the Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee. Now open for comment: Ultrasound as an Adjunct to Mammography for Breast Cancer Screening and Fecal Microbiota Therapy for Clostridium difficile Infection.

LONG-TERM CARE DATA ONLINE REFRESH

We recently reviewed our health system performance indicators for the long-term care sector and have introduced new content on our website in a revised format to improve our online public reporting. A new online tool allows you to examine data in greater detail and create custom data reports.

Follow us on Twitter

We appreciate it when you share our work on social media, and always make every effort to engage with you both online and offline. Here are some recent social media highlights:

After reading The Reality of Caring, our report on caregiver distress:
@OANHSS writes: "Caregivers need care too! OANHSS supports @HQOntario in bringing attention to this important issue http://goo.gl/WTfilp"

At the InnovationEx Conference, where Dr. Joshua Tepper was a speaker:
@stjoestoronto writes: ".@DrJoshuaTepper of @HQOntario emphasizes that patients are the fundamental reason we hold events like #InnovationEx"

Live-tweeting during our April Quality Rounds:
@NoahIvers writes: "Thrilled to present #qualityrounds @HQOntario - we can use existing data to drive better decisions for better care"