Minding the Gaps in Quality Improvement in Canada

John G. Abbott

John G. Abbott is the CEO of the Health Council of Canada

What can Canada gain by upping its investment to advance the health quality improvement agenda? And, in what areas should it invest?

A lot, in my opinion; and the focus needs to be on increasing the capability and capacity of our system and its leaders to deliver transformative change. 

This week, the Health Council of Canada held a national symposium on quality improvement under the theme: Towards a High-Performing Health Care System: The Role of Canada’s Quality Councils. 

Dr. Ross Baker

Over 200 senior leaders from across the country converged to talk about health system performance measurement and reporting, and building system capacity for quality improvement.  It was clear that there is no ‘one size fits all' when it comes to performance measurement or reporting and each jurisdiction with a quality and/or patient safety organization (there are seven in total) have adopted approaches that are working for them. So what are the gaps in Canada’s current quality improvement approach that need to be closed?

The first gap is the absence of a burning platform for transformative change so that quality improvement is embedded in everything we do in health care. Are health leaders and Canadians themselves convinced that we need to improve the quality of the care being delivered in each hospital, clinic and doctor’s office in this country? The evidence says we need to, but is that enough to make the case?

Panel on Building System Capacity for Quality Improvement

The second gap or challenge is treating QI as an add-on. Shouldn’t our health system encourage all its leaders to begin their day with the question: what have we got to do today to ensure all our activities deliver safe and appropriate care for our patients; and end their day by asking:  how do we know that we achieved this objective? If QI is its own silo, we are not going to achieve transformative change in any setting.

The third gap relates to resources. We need to increase the level of investment in resources to successfully design and manage a QI agenda. We need to train people at the front lines and in the back rooms to think as one, using a common language around performance improvement.  We need to continually support the work of quality councils in this country who in turn are aligning their activities in support of the health systems that they both monitor and engage on quality improvement initiatives.

A fourth gap is not appreciating the magnitude of managing complex system change.

A fifth gap lies in the area of technology and information sharing. We need to leverage the use of today’s technology to collect data and share information about system performance and patient outcomes in a consistent and timely way that can be used by all parts of the system to improve the quality of care.

No one organization or system has all the answers to addressing these gaps. All in all, we need to collaborate within and across organizations and jurisdictions to build capacity and capability in all these areas.  The Health Council’s report on the proceedings of its event will cover these points in greater detail and will be released on December 16, 2013 at www.healthcouncilcanada.ca.

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