Ontario Health’s Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) Program publishes the QIP Indicator Matrix, a resource that identifies priority issues and provides a list of associated indicators that health care organizations can choose for their QIPs. The matrix is designed to support organizations in selecting measurable indicators that address province-wide priorities, leading to better outcomes for all people in Ontario.
An initial review of this year’s QIP submissions shows continued attention to access and flow, safety, equity, and patient and resident experience.
Submissions data provided through Query QIPs shows how organizations are using the indicator matrix in their 2026/27 submissions:
- Hospitals continued to focus on Access and Flow and patient transitions both inside hospitals, with partners and to home. While the focus on access and flow is important, it’s encouraging to see so many hospital QIPs prioritizing equity, safety and experience in their QIPs. The most frequently selected indicators were emergency department wait time to physician initial assessment at 46.1%, patient-reported adequate information at discharge at 37.9%, and staff equity, diversity, inclusion, and antiracism education at 32.6%.
- Interprofessional Primary Care organizations placed a strong focus on patient attachment and timely access. New patient, client, or enrolment volumes were selected by 70.4% of organizations, followed by patient perception of timely access to care at 66.9%. Whether patients feel comfortable and welcome at their primary care office was selected by 48.4%.
- Long-Term Care homes continued to prioritize avoidable emergency department (ED) visits and resident safety. Potentially avoidable ED visits were selected by 67.7% of homes, followed by antipsychotic medication use among residents not living with psychosis at 64.3% and falls within the last 30 days at 63.8%. More than half of homes also selected worsening stage 2 to 4 pressure ulcers at 53.9%.
Compared with 2025/26, some notable changes include increased selection of new patient enrolment and timely access indicators in primary care, as well as increased selection of potentially avoidable emergency department visits in long-term care.
These early findings provide a snapshot of sector priorities for the 2026/27 QIP cycle. Over the coming months, the QIP team will continue analyzing submissions to identify trends, common change ideas, areas of progress, challenges, and opportunities for shared learning. Additional products are also planned to share these findings more broadly, including one-page infographics and sector specific webinars planned for November.
Indicator selection does not represent organizational performance and may be influenced by local needs, organizational priorities, indicator applicability, and changes to the matrix.
Organizations interested in learning from their peers can explore Query QIPs, a public repository of previously submitted QIPs. The tool does not require a password and allows users to search by indicator or keyword and filter results by sector, region, or organization type.