As the 2019/20 Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) cycle heads
into its final implementation phase and organizations begin to plan for the
upcoming 2020/21 QIP cycle, our team wanted to take this opportunity to
summarize some of the great quality improvement work and efforts we’ve seen
throughout the province.
In 2018/19, the QIP program underwent significant changes as
the program responded to feedback and new health care system priorities. Among
these changes were focusing province-wide improvement efforts around three
themes:
Timely and Efficient Transitions, Service Excellence, and Safe and
Effective Care.
Improving transitions in care is an important priority in
the health care system, and the addition of the
Timely and Efficient
Transitions
theme into the QIPs enabled facilitation of province-wide
improvement on this issue among all health care sectors. The 1,024 QIPs
submitted for 2019/20 contain a wealth of information about what organizations
are working on to address transitions in care.
Sharing our findings related to timely and efficient
transitions in the 2019/20 QIPs
To share some of our findings from the 2019/20 QIPs, we held
a Timely and Efficient Transitions webinar series. This webinar series focused
on many of the transition touchpoints within the system, including:
Follow the links above to read a summary and review lecture
slides or recordings for each webinar.
We saw considerable variation across the province in the
highlighted transitions indicators among and between the sectors. This is
reflective of difference geographic locations, organizational size, and
availability of resources. Despite the variation, organizations were able to
establish robust, thoughtful improvement and implementation strategies unique
to their individual circumstances.
Key themes in addressing timely and efficient transitions
The work organizations are doing to address transitions
revealed some key themes:
- Proactive discharge planning. Discharge planning that
is initiated early (before patients arrive at transition points) is crucial to
ensuring patients and families are well educated and supported to care for
themselves at home and in the community.
- Patient partnering. Partnering with patients,
caregivers, and families in the plan of care both before and after the
transition to home is also key to patients being able to successfully manage at
home and in community settings.
- Collaboration and partnerships. Patients face many
different touchpoints with providers and the health care system when
transitioning from one setting to another. Due to this, health care
organizations and providers realize that collaboration and partnerships are key
to create seamless transitions. Patients not only need to be informed and have
the information and education to care for themselves, but also need to have a
system around them that is connected, easily navigated, and up to date.
These themes were reflected throughout the QIPs and continue
to be important in the quality improvement work going forward.
Transitions between Hospital and Home Quality Standard
As we head into the 2020/21 QIP planning cycle, we encourage
all organizations to utilize the new
Transitions
between Hospital and Home Quality Standard.
This standard addresses
care for people of all ages transitioning between hospital and home after a
hospital admission. We also encourage you to review the accompanying
Transitions
Between Hospital and Home Playbook
and Tools
for Implementation.