Funding supports healthcare organizations in their efforts to improve patient care
OTTAWA, April 2, 2014 /CNW/ - The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement today announced an initiative to help Canadian healthcare organizations make care more patient- and family-centred, coordinated, safe and efficient. Partnering with Patients and Families for Quality Improvement is a 17-month collaborative open to healthcare organizations committed to engaging patients and families in designing, delivering and evaluating healthcare services with the goal of better patient care and outcomes.
"Meaningfully engaging patients and families holds the promise of improving healthcare for all Canadians," said the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Federal Minister of Health. "That's why our Government is pleased to support this drive to gather patient ideas and use them to make healthcare better."
The CFHI collaborative will provide funding, coaching and other support to help Canadian healthcare organizations build capacity and drive quality improvement by partnering with patients and families. From 2010 to 2013, CFHI's support of 17 healthcare organizations resulted in improvements to patient-provider communications, patient experience and other quality domains, including:
"CFHI's previous patient engagement work has generated improvements in areas such as wait times, medication safety, work environments and patient experience," said CFHI President Maureen O'Neil. "Partnering with Patients and Families for Quality Improvement is a collaborative to help organizations across Canada achieve similar success."
"Our project transformed care at the bedside and created a deep culture shift, with staff and patients creating and championing change together," said Patricia O'Connor, Director of Nursing at MUHC and a core faculty member of the new collaborative. "I look forward to helping other Canadian teams create new partnerships and improvements in their facilities."
CFHI will provide funding of up to $50,000 each as well as other supports to a maximum of 15 participating teams. The application deadline is May 29, 2014. Click here for more information on timelines and criteria for eligibility.
The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to accelerating healthcare improvement by working with provinces, territories and other healthcare partners to promote efficient healthcare that delivers better outcomes. With a $10 million annual federal investment, CFHI supports the development of innovations that could save provincial-territorial healthcare budgets over $1 billion per year. CFHI is funded through an agreement with the Government of Canada.
FACT SHEET
Partnering with Patients and Families for Quality Improvement
ABOUT THE COLLABORATIVE
Partnering with Patients and Families for Quality Improvement is a pan-Canadian collaborative that will bring together Canadian healthcare organizations to harness the tremendous potential of patient and family engagement to drive quality improvement in healthcare. Collaboratives are programs that bring organizations together to create sustainable change in a specific topic area. The goal of this collaborative is to help healthcare organizations deliver care that is more patient-and-family-centred, coordinated, safe and efficient.
BENEFITS OF PATIENT ENGAGEMENT
Evidence is mounting that patient and family engagement is essential for safe and high quality care. Engaging patients and families in improving healthcare means creating effective partnerships at every level between those who provide care and those who receive it. These partnerships can yield many benefits, including improved health outcomes for patients and safer and more productive work environments for healthcare professionals.
CFHI's support to 17 organizations, through the Patient Engagement Project (PEP) initiative (2010-2013), demonstrated the improvements that come when management, providers and patients work together towards better care, systems and outcomes. Effective partnership between patients, providers and management is the most promising way of meeting the challenges of an aging population, an explosion of chronic disease and limited budgets. The PEP initiative resulted in improvements to patient-provider communications, the patient experience and other quality domains, including efficiency.
ELIGIBILITY
The collaborative is open to healthcare organizations and ministries. Organizations include, but may not be limited to: healthcare service delivery organizations; regional health authorities and Local Health Integration Networks; government organizations and agencies; primary care office practices or physician groups; and community organizations (such as a Community Care Access Centre in Ontario).
FUNDING
CFHI will provide funding of up to $50,000 each to a maximum of 15 Canadian teams for direct costs related to participation in the collaborative. CFHI will also provide quality improvement expertise through faculty, coaches and leading experts to support participating teams.
ABOUT THE EXPERTS
Faculty
François Champagne is full professor of health care management, health policy and health care evaluation in the Department of Health Administration, researcher in the Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire en santé (GRIS), and collaborator in the Unité de santé internationale at the Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal.
Maria Judd, Senior Director, Patient Engagement and Improvement at the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, is responsible for developing and implementing strategies, programs and activities in support of CFHI's mission, with a particular focus on engaging patients and families in healthcare improvement work.
Roger McAdam is a retired teacher and has been a member of Alberta Health Services' Patient/Family Advisory Group since its inception and has co-chaired the committee for the past two years. Roger has served as a patient adviser on AHS's Patient Safety Executive Committee and AHS's QAC. Roger has been given the opportunity to speak to policy makers, health care workers, patients, families and volunteers to promote the inclusion of the Patient Voice at all levels of care and decision making.
Angela Morin has been partnering with healthcare professionals providing input in policy and facility design, quality improvement and program development as a Patient and Family Experience Advisor at Kingston General Hospital since November 2011. She currently sits on the Kingston General Hospital and the Southeast Regional Cancer Centre Patient and Family Advisory Councils as well as Accreditation Canada's Client and Family-Centred Care Advisory Council.
Patricia O'Connor is the Director of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), and an assistant professor in the Ingram School of Nursing at McGill. She is Past President of the Academy of Canadian Executive Nurses. Patricia completed an EXTRA Fellowship with Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (now CFHI), a fellowship with the Canadian College of Health Leaders, focusing on reducing adverse events, and a U.S. Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowship in Health Policy and Practice, examining innovations in interdisciplinary work redesign in the U.S. and Canada.
Kaye Phillips is Senior Director of Evaluation and Performance Improvement at the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, bringing ten years of experience in applied research and evaluation to the position. Kaye is responsible for leading the design, implementation and integration of performance measurement and evaluation across CFHI's programs and for providing support to our collaborative improvement teams as they generate on-going learning's and measurable results.
Melanie Rathgeber is the founder and lead consultant of MERGE Consulting, a health system improvement firm based out of British Columbia. Her experience in improvement and evaluation has provided her with a strong basis to facilitate both large and small scale improvement initiatives. Melanie led improvement and measurement initiatives at two provincial quality councils (Saskatchewan and British Columbia).
Jennifer Rees is the Executive Director of Engagement and Patient Experience, a section within Alberta Health Services (AHS) which fosters collaborative relationships between patients, families and health care providers to ensure the patients voice is heard during planning, delivery and the point of care.
Eleanor Rivoire is the Executive Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive at Kingston General Hospital, and an Assistant Professor, School of Nursing at Queen's University. She is a senior healthcare executive with more than 30 years experience within the clinical, education and administrative domains of professional practice.
Image with caption: "Left to right: Mario Di Carlo, patient advisor at McGill University Health Centre (MUHC); Stephen Samis, Vice-President Program, Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement; and Patricia O'Connor, Director of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer, MUHC. (CNW Group/Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20140402_C8232_PHOTO_EN_38738.jpg
SOURCE: Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement
Paulette Roberge
Senior Communications Specialist
Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement
W: 613-728-2238 ext. 288
C: 613-790-1070
E: [email protected]
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