Future of Healthcare in Canada

This is a massive opinion leader study based on in-depth personal interviews with 80 of the most influential people in healthcare today, as nominated by their peers. Participants include deputy ministers, academics, hospital executives, healthcare practitioners and other qualified parties. The aim is to identify how healthcare will develop over the next 5-10 years and why this will happen. Royal Bank of Canada and Manulife Financial are sponsoring the work. The study includes a special report on funding & financing issues for RBC, as well as a special report on insurance & benefits for Manulife Financial. Link to Overview of Findings.

Review & Future Plans for Quality and Utilization Management Programs

The Quality and Utilization Management Program at a large community hospital was felt to be an important influence on patient care management processes. It has been cited as a benchmark program for external facilities as an example of successful approaches to managing resources and patient access to hospital services. In light of the changes within the hospital and in the external community, a project was initiated to conduct a review to determine future plans for this program within the hospital.
Through consultation with various internal stakeholders, various goals were identified for the review. A confidential, semi-structured interview process was utilized with all stakeholder groups. The final report was structured around the goals, identified common themes and specific key concerns identified in the review process, and included recommendations regarding new structures, adapted processes, and valued elements to retain. Click here to see a Brief Overview.

Setting Strategic Priorities for Best Practices in Patient Safety

A healthcare association wished to set strategic priorities regarding best practices regarding safety and risk. These themes and priorities could then be used in guiding the organizations program planning. Information from key websites was analyzed for themes, some of the current main topic areas included medication errors, falls and injuries due to restraints, errors related to access or waiting. Themes that can underlie best practices include supporting a blame-free culture, developing strong communication between interdependent areas, and promotes leadership/teamwork

Development of a Patient Satisfaction Survey

Developed and coordinated an ongoing patient satisfaction process. This process used a stratified random sample of discharged patients, who were contacted for a telephone interview within a few weeks of their discharge from hospital. A number of patients were contacted each week, supporting continuous client feedback. The framework, interview and reporting process was developed taking into account both previous hospital information, and external research information, Quarterly reports were provided to administration concerning trends; however, immediate feedback was provided to managers where intervention was indicated, and ”pats on the back” sent to commended staff. Much initial support and coaching of managers went in to this change.

Evaluation Framework for an Acute Geriatric Medical Unit

A strategic planning process in a large community hospital identified the need for an acute medical geriatric unit. Working with the development team, and using information from the planning process, a framework was put in place to guide the ongoing formative evaluation of the unit.

Developing Measures of the Quality of Nursing Care

A major children’s’ hospital was looking for a cost-effective method of regularly assessing their quality of nursing care without spending undue time observing each nurse. We developed a brief form requiring only 3-6 hours of observation per month to assess quality. The instrument was designed using domain sampling principles, thus ensuring that quality improvements were broad and not confined to a few narrow tracked indicators.