We’re excited to share a series on Quorum about how quality standards can be used to support quality improvement together with others who are working on adopting the quality standards.
By learning what works and what doesn’t from our peers in the field, we can increase our chances of reducing variation and improving outcomes for all our patients.
As many of you may know, in October 2016, Health Quality Ontario launched the Quality Standards program.
Quality standards are sets of 5-15 statements outlining what high quality care looks like for a certain health care issue.
Developed in collaboration with patients, physicians, nurses, other clinicians, caregivers, and organizations across the province, quality standards are intended to achieve four main aims. They will help:
- Patients, families and caregivers know what to discuss about their care with their health care professionals;
- Health care professionals offer the highest quality care based on the best available evidence;
- Health care organizations and professionals know what they can measure, reflect on their practice and improve the quality of their care; and
- Health system planners create the environment for health care professionals and organizations to deliver quality care.
Achieving the high-quality care outlined in the quality standard will require us all to work together at the local, regional and system levels to deliver the evidence-based care outlined in a quality standard.
At the local and regional levels, providers and organizations, LHINs, and other health system partners across the province are encouraged to use the quality standard as a resource for quality improvement by assessing the care that is currently being provided against the evidence-based care outlined in the quality standard.
While many organizations and providers may be offering the care described in the quality standard, the statements, related indicators, and adoption supports are designed to assist organizations to determine where there are opportunities to focus their improvement efforts.
We want to hear from organizations and teams that are using the quality standards across Ontario. We invite you to share on Quorum:
- what quality standard(s) you are working on
- your challenges and successes
- lessons learned
Learn more about how organizations have been using Quality Standards to improve the quality of care through the following posts in this series. Also included are various tools for implementing Quality Standards.
Posts on adopting mental health related Quality Standards:
Posts on prioritizing and implementing Quality Standards:
Post on adopting the hip fracture Quality Standard
Sharing and building on these success, together we can drive improvement for a healthier Ontario.
Sincerely,
Lee Fairclough/Irfan Dhalla for the HQO Quality Standards Team