When I started as QIDSS for Kawartha North, Haliburton Highlands, and City of Kawartha Lakes Family Health Teams, annual QIP submission through the HQO website was just starting. As such I have seen the evolution of QIPs in both the expansion of indicators as well as more and more effective methods of measuring indicators.
I am seeing a phenomenon commonly found in primary care where organizations work in “silos” and don’t take pause and see what other groups are doing in quality improvement. This year I realized that I was starting to fall into the same trap.
This spring (2016) I was fortunate to have Sarah Finley ( a graduating student from the Health Information Management program at Fleming College) come and do a 4 week placement with me. We decided her project would be to analyse the publicly posted QIP plans from 2014 and 2015 from FHTs all across Ontario. She looked for common trends in QI change ideas that proved both ineffective and effective.
What is a QIP? (From HQO)
A QIP is a formal, documented set of quality commitments that a health care organization makes to its patients, clients, residents, staff and community on an annual basis to improve quality through focused targets and actions. While each QIP is developed under the umbrella of a common provincial vision and provides a system-wide platform for QI, it is owned by the organization. As such, your organization’s QIP should both complement system and provincial priorities and address local opportunities for priority improvements. The QIP is the blueprint for how your organization will strive to meet or exceed the improvement targets you have set for that year. Each year’s QIP is designed to build off the one before and earlier QIPs as well to exceed targets and benchmarks. By measuring progress made toward targets, by carefully studying which changes worked and which didn’t, and by identifying lessons learned regarding measurement and implementation during the year, you will have information necessary to help you to develop your next QIP.
Quality improvement plans are an important improvement tool. While they are not an “accountability” or “performance management” tool, the Board, the senior leadership and the organization as a whole are accountable for the commitments made (for targets set and for undertaking QI activities) in your plan. It is widely understood that QI involves testing new ways of doing things and learning from these tests of change; setbacks will happen and your organization might not always make progress toward or meet the targets you set for that year. When this occurs, your organization is expected to review and learn from these implementation challenges and include new, refreshed approaches to help your organization meet established targets for the next year’s QIP.
Your annual QIP provides an opportunity to demonstrate your organization’s commitment and ability to learn, to make effective changes that lead to better performance over time, and, in collaboration with health care partners, to move beyond the average and to provide excellent care for all.