A locally driven collaborative project (LDCP) Quarterly Update March 2018
Overview Ontario public health units (PHUs) have studied and discussed continuous quality improvement (CQI) for over a decade. There are no generally accepted standards and everyone is doing it differently. The new Ontario Public Health Standards include a requirement that PHUs ensure a culture of quality and continuous organizational self-improvement, but provide little direction on how this is to be done. This makes it more important than ever to understand how to strengthen CQI in Ontario s PHUs. Our goal in Phase 1 of the CQI LDCP was to understand the current state of CQI in public health and what can be done to support CQI within and across health units. We completed a survey of staff in participating health units and a scoping review of the literature. In Phase 2 (2018-2019) of our research we will: consult with PHUs and other partners in the public health sector to agree on CQI language; and collect and analyze case studies of CQI work that has been done in PHUs to learn what has been useful and what has not helped.
Phase 1 Results QI Maturity Tool Survey individual site reports were distributed to the 34 health units that participated in the survey. The Provincial aggregated report of the QI Maturity Tool Survey results were distributed to stakeholders in March 2017. The Scoping Review Report and Search Strategy were distributed to stakeholders in August 2017. All project materials are available on the project page on the PHO website.
Project Administration 30 PHUs are on the research project team for phase 2. The main project team has regular monthly meetings. There are also 3 Working Groups that meeting monthly: Vocabulary Working Group Case Study Working Group Knowledge Exchange Working Group All health units are welcome to participate in meetings according to interest and capacity.
Building a Common Language We have: Begun compiling a list of CQI terms and definitions for use in the public health sector. Developed a draft protocol to solicit feedback on CQI terms and definitions. Started the research ethics application.
Collecting & sharing case studies We are: Identifying the data we want to collect from health units as part of the case study process. Developing our recruitment process to ensure that all health units have the chance to participate. Exploring needs and options for the repository where we will store / access case studies once they have been collected.
Knowledge Exchange We are presenting at TOPHC 2018. The session (#17) title is Moving the Needle on Continuous Quality Improvement in Public Health. Our whiteboard video has been released. You can find it on the project page on the PHO website. We are exploring options to publish the results from phase 1 of our project.
The next 3 months... We will: Finalize the process for PHU and key stakeholder feedback on CQI terms and definitions. Finalize the protocols and tools for the case study data collection.
Acknowledgements Many people have contributed to the success of this project. Our Core Project Team included the following individuals (at March 2018): Agency Primary contact(s) Agency Primary contact(s) Brant County Health Unit Janet Kwansah Brock University Madelyn Law, Kelly Pilato Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit Stanley Ing City of Hamilton Public Health Services Jennifer Hohol Durham Region Health Department Neal Mattes Eastern Ontario Health Unit Sandra Labelle Elgin St Thomas Health Unit Cathy Walker Grey Bruce Health Unit Lindsay MacDemid Haldimand Norfolk Health Unit Susan Taylor, Chimere Okoronkwo Halton Region Health Department Anna Larson Hasting Prince Edward Public Health Nancy McGeachy Huron County Health Unit Barb Leavitt Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Public Health Suzette Taggart Lambton Public Health Nancy Wai Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit Katie Jackson Middlesex-London Health Unit Daniel Murcia Niagara Region Public Health (co-lead) Nicole Stefanovici North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit Danielle Hunter Northwestern Health Unit (Admin co-lead) Alex Berry, Samantha Manty Ottawa Public Health Tania O Connor Oxford County Public Health Laura Gibbs Perth District Health Unit Karen Bergin-Payette Porcupine Health Unit Tom Regan Public Health Sudbury & Districts Nastassia McNair Region of Peel Public Health Monali Varia, Nancy Ramuscak Region of Waterloo Public Health Tyrone Kidney Renfrew County and District Health Unit Carla Walters, Colleen Musclow Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit Casey Hirschfeld Thunder Bay District Health Unit Cheryl D Angelo Toronto Public Health Annette Sonneveld Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Parteek Shukla Windsor-Essex County Health Unit Marc Frey York Region Public Health Sarah Thompson, Judy Hope, Donna Poon Volunteer / adviser Meighan Finlay
For more info Project co-leads Alex Berry Manager, Communications & Foundations Services Northwestern Health Unit aberry@nwhu.on.ca (807) 274-9827, x 3663 Nicole Stefanovici Continuous Quality Improvement and Educations Advisor Niagara Region Public Health and Emergency Services nicole.stefanovici@niagararegion.ca (905) 688-8248, x 7478 The CQI LDCP Team would like to thank Public Health Ontario (PHO) for its support of this project. The team gratefully acknowledges funding received from PHO through the Locally Driven Collaborative Projects program. The views expressed in this publication are the views of the project team, and do not necessarily reflect those of Public Health Ontario.