Feb 15, 2023
In January 2017, 16 Saskatchewan doctors became the first participants in the new Clinical Quality Improvement Program (CQIP), which was launched by the Health Quality Council (HQC) in collaboration with the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) and the provincial Ministry of Health. CQIP is an 11-month course designed to build capacity for facilitating and leading successful health care improvement work in Saskatchewan. The program includes a mix of theory and experiential learning, along with individual coaching and a community of practice for physicians actively working in a clinical context.
Until Oct. 31, applications will be accepted for the second CQIP cohort. More information, including the application package, is available on the HQC website.
As the first wave of CQIP continues through to November 2017, HQC will share information about the participants’ projects. Here, Dr. Milo Fink from Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region and Dr. Chantal Ansell from the University of Saskatchewan’s Student Wellness Centre answer questions about their projects and about quality improvement in health care.
Dr. Milo Fink, Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region
Q: Why did you want to get involved in CQIP?
A: I have a strong interest in systems and system improvement. In November 2016, I was appointed Department Head for Medicine in Regina. The CQIP program gives me tools to use in my position.
Q: What is your project about?
A: My project looks at handovers from tertiary medicine admissions to the community. How timely are discharge summaries produced? Transcribed? Received? And how consistent is their quality?
Q: Why did you choose that topic?
A: The most common comment I hear from family physicians is that they do not get timely and effective information about their patients’ hospitalizations. Handovers are a focus area for quality in the provincial system. I have a background in working with provincial information systems. And I have a belief that physicians will work well in a system that gives us feedback on how we, and the system, are working.
Q: What does quality improvement mean to you?
A: Bottom line is that patients get access, assessment, and treatment that is safe, appropriate, and timely. That can only happen when patients, physicians, and administrative people work together to monitor what we are doing and change where there is evidence that suggests we can do better.
Q: Why is quality improvement important for physicians and other health care professionals?
A: Satisfaction – we all want to do well. Virtually everyone I talk to sees system deficits – but, in the complex adaptive system that is health care, the actions of a single person may seem futile. If we can see how we are doing and how the areas in which we work are doing, and if we can see how our performance fits with an understandable concept and plan that seems to be making improvements, I think everyone wins.
Dr. Chantal Ansell, Student Wellness Centre, University of Saskatchewan
Q: Why did you want to get involved in CQIP?
A: I wanted to get involved with CQIP because it represents a way for me to learn concrete ways to tackle issues, both small and large, to improve the health care system for everyone involved.
Q: What is your project about?
A: My project is, on the surface, about reducing the wait time for patients to have a psychiatric consultation. The bigger goal is to integrate collaborative care into our practice – meaning all providers involved in a patient’s care meet regularly and work as a team to achieve better access, better outcomes, and overall better health care for patients.
Q: Why did you choose that topic?
A: Initially I chose this project because I was frustrated, personally and on patients’ behalf, at (waiting too long) to get advice from a specialist about patients’ mental health care. Several months and a lot of reading later, I now understand that our traditional model of care is out-of-date and ripe for change, which CQIP is equipping me to approach – in a more structured and productive way than banging my head against the wall!
Q: What does quality improvement mean to you?
A: Quality improvement to me means the continuous process of examining a system and changing it as needed, always striving to make it better.
Q: Why is quality improvement important for physicians and other health care professionals?
A: I think quality improvement is important for everyone! People and systems naturally evolve over time, and it’s helpful to have strategies to guide this change in the right direction.
