FPHC Quality Improvement Plan

A Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) is a formal, documented set of quality commitments aligned with system and provincial priorities that a healthcare organization makes to its patients/clients/residents, staff and community to improve quality through focused targets and actions. By submitting our QIP to Health Quality Ontario (HQO), we as a system can begin to understand what progress organizations are making in achieving targets on priority improvement areas. Additionally, the QIP provides rich information for the system to better understand how we collectively can spearhead improvement efforts.

Quality improvement objectives may be similar across organizations. The QIP provides an opportunity to learn from our peers on the types of actions we can take to achieve quality objectives to reduce wide variation with approaches taken. In addition to being owned by the organization, QIPs are developed under the umbrella of a common provincial vision and provide a system-wide platform for quality improvement. This provincial vision is expressed through the priority indicators that are included in the QIP. These quality themes reflect Ontario’s vision for a high-performing healthcare system and were prioritized through consultation with key stakeholders, representative associations and informed by other partner organizations including HQO.

A QIP is owned by each healthcare organization and is a way for the organization to focus its efforts on key quality improvement priorities.

Healthcare organizations may be undertaking a range of quality improvement projects at any given time. Organizations should consider system-, sector- and organization-level quality improvement priorities when developing their annual QIPs. The QIP helps to organize quality improvement projects, prioritize them, and makes sure they’re aligned with the overall quality improvement goals of the organization and system at large.

QIPs are also a way for patients/clients/residents to become engaged in a dialogue about the quality of care provided by health care organizations. Patients/clients/residents, their families and caregivers should have access to an organization’s QIP (e.g., through public posting), feel they can ask questions about the QIP, and contribute to the QIP development process (e.g., by filling out an experience survey or through an organization’s patient relations process).

Finally, QIPs are a way for the entire healthcare system to collectively focus on key priorities that will help to put patients, residents and clients first. By setting priority indicators and publishing QIP guidance materials, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (ministry) is supporting a focus on broader health system improvement and shared improvement priorities.

Every organization will be at a different starting point when it comes to developing a QIP. The guidance materials have been developed to ensure that every health care organization completing a QIP can “see themselves” in the system-level commitments and priorities expressed in this guidance.

While the QIPs are not used as a performance management tool between the ministry (or LHIN) and healthcare organizations, they are meant to be a mechanism through which an organization’s leadership holds the organization to account for the commitments made for improved quality of care. Organizations have a responsibility to report on progress and be available to explain their performance on commitments made in their QIP. The QIP progress report is one means by which organizations can account for progress made against their commitments.

1. Use organizational-level data to identify current performance and/or baseline for the priority.
2. Review the priority indicators as set out by HQO and determine which are relevant for WCH. This includes a review of current performance against provincial benchmarks/theoretical best for all priority indicators.
3. Use the guidance provided by HQO to create a plan to address each of the system level priorities we have identified for improvement. A plan includes setting a target, identifying change ideas to be tested, methods and process measures, as per the QIP.
4. Ensure proper communication of these priorities to WCH communities.
5. Sign-off: Once the QIP has been approved by the Board, the Quality Committee (if applicable) and key senior leadership, those involved must “sign-off” on the QIP. This is an important component to help demonstrate the shared accountabilities and responsibilities for the QIP at the governance, clinical and administrative levels.

QIPs are not an accountability or compliance tool, but rather a tool to guide an organization’s quality improvement efforts. A QIP is a formal commitment that we are making to our patients/residents/clients, staff, and community to improve quality through focused targets and actions.

Not only is transparency an important way of ensuring that our publicly-funded healthcare system remains accountable to the people of Ontario, it is also a way for healthcare organizations to foster dialogue with the communities they serve. By publicly posting our QIPs, the Family Practice Health Centre can communicate local quality improvement priorities to our patients, clients and residents, and demonstrate our overall commitment to quality.