Knowledge Summaries

Performance reporting to help organizations promote quality improvement*

Performance reports can lead to quality improvement activities, and to overall improvement in health services and outcomes, when they are directed at people involved in the delivery of care at the organizational level.

Manage Waits Centrally For Better Efficiency*

Creating a single, common framework for reporting wait times is the necessary first step toward better healthcare planning. It’s also a necessary step in the application of methods (such as queuing theory) to shorten and eliminate waits.

Visiting-specialist services to improve access and outcomes for isolated populations*

Visiting-specialist services can improve access to specialty care and health outcomes for patients, especially disadvantaged groups since access barriers have important health consequences, while also improving collaboration between primary caregivers and specialists.

Incorporate lay health workers to promote health and prevent disease*

Allowing lay health workers to stand in for health professionals, where appropriate, can create breathing room for physicians and other health professionals, allowing them to make the best use of their limited time, enabling improved quality of care and extending the reach of health services.

Self-management education to optimize health and reduce hospital admissions for chronically ill patients*

Self-management education offers a solution for avoiding preventable health complications and unscheduled physician visits. More importantly, it provides patients with chronic illnesses the confidence they need to better manage their illnesses.

Introduce patient decision aids to improve clinical decision-making quality for "grey zone" decisions*

Self-management education offers a solution for avoiding preventable health complications and unscheduled physician visits. More importantly, it provides patients with chronic illnesses the confidence they need to better manage their illnesses.

Improve immunization rates with patient reminder and recall systems

Increasing immunization rates through patient reminder and recall systems is one of the simplest ways providers can improve preventive care and increase their contribution to population health.

Implement nurse staffing plans for better quality of care*

Flexible nurse staffing plans go beyond the numbers and also ensure the right type of nurses with appropriate levels of experience and education, making sure this mix is right for the patient’s needs.

Allow midwives to participate as full members of the healthcare team

Midwives are safe and effective caregivers for women with low-risk pregnancies. Yet the reluctance of some provincial governments to regulate the profession and/or pay for midwifery services could prevent many pregnant women from receiving this high-quality care.

Enhance discharge planning to end the revolving door of hospital care (2006)

Vulnerable populations, such as elderly heart patients and people with schizophrenia, benefit greatly from enhanced discharge planning that includes coordinated links to and provision of homecare.

Electronic decision support tools bring better care to the bedside*

Clinical decision support systems can help doctors practice better, but in order to do so they must be developed and adapted to suit the particular clinical context in which they are applied.

Interdisciplinary teams in primary healthcare can effectively manage chronic illnesses*

Evaluations of interdisciplinary care consistently find that patients who receive care from allied health professionals in addition to their primary care physicians fare at least as well as those receiving care from their doctors alone, and many studies find significant improvements.

Reference-based drug insurance policies can cut costs without harming patients

Reference pricing of drugs is one successful way for insurers to cut costs without negatively affecting patients, allowing public funds to be better spent on effective treatments.