Quality Improvement

162 articles
by Kathleen Ross

Access to family doctor crucial step in weeding out fact from fiction

Everyone deserves access to accurate, evidence-based health information. A robust primary care system helps patients weed out fact from fiction, build trusting relationships with providers and ultimately live healthier lives.

by Pamela Bader Imène Tissoukai

Organizational accountability in medical errors

Providers often find themselves at the forefront of accountability, facing repercussions for a sequence of events that result in patient harm. By evaluating system considerations, we can associate individual behaviours with preventable measures that can be implemented to mitigate safety incidents.

by Tara Slade-Hall

OurCare Quebec: ‘Patients are frustrated and afraid of what is to come’

Like most Quebecers, I'm worried about our failing health-care system. We as patients are left feeling frustrated and afraid of what is to come.

by Maddi Dellplain

‘It’s the structures that are sick – it’s not the kids’: Experts stress importance of clean air in schools

How important is air ventilation and filtration in classrooms? Is air quality something that should be a budgetary priority for school boards and provincial and federal governments? This is what the experts had to say.

by Amir Imani 

Vanessa’s Law expansion puts natural health products in their place

Vanessa’s Law,” mandates hospitals to report serious adverse events that may have originated from medications and medical devices. This year it was expanded to include Natural Health Products, a move that should have been made long ago.

by John Van Aerde

We must change our mindset about our health-care system

No system, public or private, can cover all the health needs and wants of every person all the time. It's time for difficult conversations about our health-care system.

by Douglas Courtemanche

Another year? Yes. Make it a good one, and share it with specialists, too.

Adding another year to the family practice residency may be controversial, but it is a good idea. All students, residents, clinicians, the system and, most importantly, patients would benefit from a more complete education of all doctors.

by Doreen Rabi

We cannot teach ourselves out of a failing system

The College of Family Physicians of Canada's expansion of training will demoralize and financially penalize early career physicians. Education will not address systemic and structural barriers to comprehensive practice.

by Marwah Younis Peter Zhang

Pharmacist prescribers fill important gaps in the Canadian healthcare system

Pharmacist prescribing provides a win-win outcome for patients, health-care professionals and the health-care system as a whole.

by Alykhan Abdulla

Sometimes the truth is unbearable

The health-care system is failing Canadians with lethal consequences. Policymakers need to make urgent changes now to address delays in access to care.

by Jeff Nicholls Mary Cook

We must overhaul how Ontario’s hospitals are governed. Our lives depend on it.

The Minden ED closure serves as a timely wake-up call on how our hospitals are governed. As citizens and stakeholders, it is our responsibility to demand better because our lives, and those of our fellow Canadians, depend on it.

by Ali Tabatabaey

‘A huge benefit’: Advances in blood products may save lives in rural communities

Blood supplies in rural areas can be low, leaving trauma patients at risk. But innovations in freeze-dried plasma could help save lives.

by Michelle Cohen

The wellness profiteers of virtual health care

The virtual care industry has boomed in part due to the decline of primary care. But with it has come a host of wellness scams blurring the lines between evidence-based and unproven health-care remedies.

by Emma Arkell

Connecting the dots: Standardizing EMR data essential to improving care, easing burnout

The developers and engineers at eHealth are aiming to ensure that as patients move through the health-care system, their information follows them. But there are still obstacles to the development of effective electronic medical records (EMRs).

by Danielle Brown-Shreves Vanessa Wright Tara Kiran Tara Kiran

Team-based care key to alleviating primary-care crisis

Primary care is in crisis and there aren't enough doctors to go around. Done right, team-based care can expand the capacity of family doctors to care for more patients.

by Emma Arkell

‘A new way to move people’: Fewer back injuries for health-care workers, more comfort for patients

New improvements to lifts and transfer devices could reduce the risks of work-related injury in health care staff and improve quality of care.

by Sandor J. Demeter

Let’s stop the bickering: Canadians are weary of finger-pointing amid the health-care crisis

Canadians love their publicly funded health care. But it is time to stop normalizing our broken health-care system. Political leaders need to quit bickering about who pays for what and get on with actually fixing the problem.

by Maddi Dellplain

Will the first cut be the deepest? The debate on for-profit surgeries

As Ontario moves to fund private centres for select surgical procedures, will the province see a reduction in backlogs? Or is it a slippery slope towards further privatization of the provincial healthcare system? Our experts weigh in.

by Maddi Dellplain

OurCare survey highlights lack of access to primary care

A nation-wide survey on the state of primary care in Canada illuminates pressing issues facing our health system. Dr. Tara Kiran and a team of collaborators with the OurCare project have launched an online dashboard with the findings.

by Sandor J. Demeter

Behind the scenes: The increasingly complex – and common – radiation treatment for cancer

Radiation therapy for cancer is becoming increasingly complex, sophisticated and personalized. Behind the scenes for most patients hides an invisible team hard at work.

1 of 9