Quality Improvement Program Year-End Update
The Quality Improvement (QI) Program is excited to introduce the addition of a full-time administrative assistant, Alyson Wiebe, to complement our current Program Coordinator, Patti Riege. We are also pleased to announce the hiring of Dr. Sonja Bruin as a Medical Consultant for the program. Dr. Bruin is a family physician working with Ongomiizwin Health Services and as a hospitalist in Intensive Care for the WRHA. She is involved in teaching and holds an MBA, so she brings significant leadership and organizational skills with her. These additions will double our staffing and allow the program to accommodate the workflow required to meet our legislative obligation of all physicians participating within a seven-year period. We are very happy to welcome our new team members.
The QI Program is operating at a new normal state, with flexibility for registrants who are more significantly affected by pandemic and system stresses and not reasonably able to participate when selected. Most participants to date have been able to complete their process.
From the inception of the QI Program (January 2019) to March 2022, cohorts have been randomly selected from anesthesia, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics & gynecology, pediatrics, plastic surgery, and psychiatry. Another cohort of 250 participants was launched on November 7, 2022, including the above-mentioned specialties as well as cardiology. In 2023, allergy/immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, orthopedics, nephrology, radiology, respirology, and urology will begin participation over the course of the year.
Dr. Marilyn Singer, Consultant for Quality Improvement, presents information to registrants of specialty groups as they enter the program, usually via Grand Rounds. Outreach is done to specialties to ensure that program materials are a good fit.
All participants are required to submit an Action Plan for improvement as the concluding activity of their participation. After one year, they are contacted via email to solicit feedback on the success or challenges of realizing their plan. We find participants complete the plan in a thoughtful and reflective manner. The one-year feedback reveals honesty about accomplishments achieved and barriers encountered. COVID-19 affected the plans of many, and registrants found that they made many unanticipated changes to their processes and procedures related to the challenges encountered.
Feedback from participants who have completed the process has largely been positive, including the feedback gathered via an anonymous online survey. Registrants value the reflective process and the ability to tailor their improvement plans to their individual work.
The QI Program has received CPD accreditation from both the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Both have granted the program the highest credit level available of 3 credits per hour MainPro+ and Section 3 Assessment credits, respectively.