Practical tools for practices to improve quality
Practical tools for your QI project
We have developed/adapted some practical tools to support your journey to improve quality.
List of Tools and Templates with Sources:
Please note that some of the tools are available via links to the Institute of Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) website: www.IHI.org. To access the content, an account is necessary. Click on the "register" tab in the top right hand corner of the IHI homepage and then click on the create an account link.
Accessing data for your practice
HQO MyPractice Report
https://www.hqontario.ca/quality-improvement/practice-reports/primary-care
Learn even more about your practice by signing up for a confidential report that includes personalized data, along with suggestions to support you in improving care for your patients.
Screening Activity Report (SAR)
The SAR is an online tool available to primary care physicians who practice as part of a patient enrolment model, It provides screening data for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers to help physicians improve their cancer screening rates and appropriate follow-up. The report platform is interactive, allowing physicians to quickly find specific cancer screening information for each patient.
OntarioMD Dashboard
https://www.ontariomd.ca/products-and-services/insights4care/i4c-dashboard
OntarioMD has developed an EMR-integrated, actionable population health management tool that gives clinicians real-time visual representation of their EMR data using widely recognized primary care indicators each representing different preventive care and chronic disease management focus points (diabetes test results, smoking status, etc). The dashboard enables clinicians to drill down to patient-level data for each indicator and take immediate proactive steps to improve patient care. Email support@ontariomd.com to find out how to start using the dashboard in your practice
UTOPIAN - DFCM
https://www.dfcm.utoronto.ca/about-utopian
UTOPIAN can provide practices with de-identified patient data from the practice Electronic Medical Record, summarizing practice demographics and information on quality of care.
Ethics, privacy and consent
We do not need formal ethics review for local QI work that will not be published but regardless, we should always consider issues related to ethics, privacy, and consent.
Ethics
We engage in QI work to improve care for patients but sometimes our actions can have unintended harm or risk. Some of the potential harms that we think about related to efforts to improve quality include:
- Privacy breaches
- Opportunity costs
- Patient distress resulting from interviews about a sensitive issue
- Staff distress resulting from disclosure of poor performance
When designing your QI initiative, consider how to minimize potential harms and risks to patients and providers.
Privacy
When conducting your quality improvement initiative, it is important to follow strict procedures to protect patient and staff privacy including:
- Storing hard copies of data in a secure location and shredding when no longer needed
- Storing soft copies of data on secured drives with limited access
- Limiting the amount of information collected or stored together
- De-identifying data for presentations or reports (e.g. not presenting identifiable information in quotes, suppressing cell size where n<6)
Informed consent
When interviewing staff or patients for an improvement initiative, ensure they are informed about:
- Why you are doing the interview
- How you will use their data
- Steps you are taking to protect their privacy
- Opportunities to learn about how their data and your project impacted care
Disseminating your QI work
We can think creatively about ways to disseminate our results with others – from a blog, to commentaries, to presentations, to a QI report, to a more traditional peer-reviewed publication. Here are some avenues to consider.
Blogs
- Share your improvement experiences with other colleagues engaged in improvement work via Quorum (hosted by Ontario Health)
- Share your experience with patients through HealthyDebate
- Many medical journals have associated blogs that would be good venues to share reflections
Presentations
The following conferences offer great opportunities to present primary care QI work:
- Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO)
- Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (C-QuIPS)
- Family Medicine Forum (FMF)
- North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG)
- North American Primary Care Research Group - Practice Based Research Network (PBRN)
- Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
Peer-reviewed publications
Full research papers can be published in a number of reputable journals. If a full research paper seems out of reach, here are some other options to consider:
- QI report in BMJ Quality Open
- Program Description or Commentary in Canadian Family Physician
- Innovations section in CMAJ
- Innovation report in Annals of Family Medicine
QI Professional Development
Maintaining knowledge and skills to improve quality is required to nurture a culture of curiosity and desire for ‘better’. There are many opportunities to continue your education in this regard:
Certificate programs:
Centre for Quality Improvement & Patient Safety https://www.cquips.ca
Institute for Health Care Improvement - Improvement Advisor http://www.ihi.org/education/InPersonTraining/improvement-advisor/Pages/default.aspx
Degree programs:
Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI) Open School
http://www.ihi.org/education/Pages/default.aspx
University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) Master of Science in Quality Improvement & Patient Safety
https://ihpme.utoronto.ca/academics/rd/qips-msc/
Queen’s University - Master of Science in Healthcare Quality
https://healthsci.queensu.ca/hqprograms/programs/master-science-healthcare-quality
Queen’s University - Doctor of Philosophy in Quality
https://healthsci.queensu.ca/hqprograms/programs/doctor-philosophy-health-quality
Fellowships:
VA Quality Scholars: https://www.deptmedicine.utoronto.ca/veteran-affairs-quality-scholars-vaqs
Resources for faculty
QI Publication Funding
Purpose
To help support DFCM faculty who have had peer-reviewed articles focused on improving quality accepted for publication.
Award
The DFCM will award 50% of a publication acceptance fee up to a maximum of $1,000 CAD per publication. An applicant must demonstrate availability of matching funds. Awards are based on availability of funds.
Eligibility
All faculty in the Department of Family and Community Medicine are eligible to apply. Preference will be given to Quality and Innovation Program Directors. The faculty member must be either first author or senior responsible author. Publications should relate to improving quality in primary care and summarize results of an original intervention. A maximum of one award will be granted per person per calendar year (January 1 - December 31).
Requirements
Completion of the online form.
Helpful websites
Center for Excellence in Primary Care
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (sign up via email address & password to access white papers and resources)
machealth - Quality in Family Practice
https://machealth.ca/programs/quality/
Ontario Health - Patient Partnering
https://www.hqontario.ca/Patient-Partnering/Patient-Partnering-Tools-and-Resources
Ontario Health - Quality Improvement in Primary Care
Canadian Patient Safety Institute
https://www.patientsafetyinstitute.ca/en/toolsresources/Pages/default.aspx