Ontario CHCs and the Quality Agenda

1. Ontario CHCs and the Quality Agenda Eastern Region CHC Data Consortium QI Workshop May 7, 2010 Ottawa Michael M. Rachlis MD MSc FRCPC www.michaelrachlis.ca

2. Outline • Why the attention to health care quality? • CHCs tend to do well compared with other PHC models, but… • CHCs need to get well ahead of the curve to protect the CHC model of care • Health care boards have important and emerging roles for quality oversight • Final thoughts

3. Why the attention to healthcare quality? • Health care is rife with quality problems • PHC is a high risk environment • Some of us have known this for a long time • But the Canadian system and Ontario in particular is now focussing on quality

4. Health care is rife with quality problems • Studies in more 7 countries indicate that 5-10% of all deaths in developed countries are due to preventable deaths in hospitals • In Canada that means 9000 – 24,000 deaths per year • The 2004 Canadian Adverse Events Studycites that 7.5 % of hospital patients have an adverse event (AE) • 185,000 are associated with an AE and 70,000 of these are potentially preventable

5. PHC is also a high risk environment • UK research for the Primary Care Trigger tool indicated that 1/3 patients > 75 suffered an adverse event in the previous year • Twenty percent of Canadian women > 65 take benzodiazepines on a long term basis • Thousands of patients with chronic disease die because they don’t get proper follow up • Canada’s PHC performance lags that of other countries

6. Practices with Advanced Electronic Health Information Capacity % Source: 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians.

7. Practice Routinely Receives and Reviews Data on Patient Outcomes % Source: 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians

8. Time Spent Reporting or Meeting Regulations is a Major Problem % Source: 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians

9. Canadian health care is inefficient • Canadians could get PHC from a regular provider within 24 hours • We could get elective specialty care within 1 week • We could get elective surgery within 2 months

10. Delivering health services without adequate primary health care is like pulling your goalie in the first period. You score lots of goals but lose every game.

11. Ontario in particular is now focussing on quality and performance mgmt • Changes in the health care environment are driving: • Accountability • Performance measurement • Patient safety • Governance

12. CHCs tend to do well compared with other PHC models, but it’s like winning a high jump competition against dwarves – the bar is reallllly low!

13. “Who is doing this better?” • “Last year, we reported community health centres did the best job of providing evidence-based chronic disease management in the province, despite working with the most disadvantaged people. The kind of careful management community health centres routinely give for diabetes and heart disease can keep people out of hospital and help them live longer.” (Ontario Health Quality Council 2009)

14. CHC have better performance for: • Chronic Disease Management • Individual Health Promotion • Comprehensiveness • Community Orientation. Per Muldoon 2010

15. CHC have equivalent performance to others for: • Disease prevention Per Muldoon 2010

16. But CHC have less favourable performance for: • Accessibility • Costs of PHC Per Muldoon 2010

17. What are the numbers? (per Muldoon 2010)

18. CHCs need to be ahead of the curve to protect their model of care • FHTs are catching up with chronic disease management and prevention and some are embracing QI and innovation • CHCs remain marginal players in the ON health policy agenda

19. Attributes of High Performing Health Systems Ontario Health Quality Council. April 2006. (www.ohqc.ca) Safe Effective Patient-Centred Accessible Efficient Equitable Integrated Appropriately resourced Focused on Population Health

20. The “Quality Agenda” is nearly synonymous with the “Second Stage of Medicare”. It’s written for CHCs!

21. “I am concerned about Medicare – not its fundamental principles -- but with the problems we knew would arise. Those of us who talked about Medicare back in the 1940’s, the 1950’s and the 1960’s kept reminding the public there were two phases to Medicare. The first was to remove the financial barrier between those who provide health care services and those who need them. We pointed out repeatedly that this phase was the easiest of the problems we would confront.”Tommy Douglas 1979 Catching Medicare’s second stage

22. “The phase number two would be the much more difficult one and that was to alter our delivery system to reduce costs and put and emphasis on preventative medicine….Canadians can be proud of Medicare, but what we have to apply ourselves to now is that we have not yet grappled seriously with the second phase.”Tommy Douglas 1979

23. The Second Stage of Medicare is delivering health services differently to keep people well

24. Health care boards have important and emerging roles for quality oversight

25. The new Excellent Care Act for All will: • Mandate more hospital quality reporting • Mandate hospital board quality committees • Mandate hospital QI plans • Increase the responsibility of hospital boards for quality • Permit regulations which would apply the act to other health organizations besides hospitals • Enhance the role of the Ontario Health Quality Council • And a lot more

26. CHC board’s have no legislated responsibilities for quality, but • Hospital boards will shortly have these mandates • CHCs are also funded by LHINs • It’s going to happen to you too! • Don’t we believe in community governance?

27. Engaging boards for quality • Establish a Skilled and Qualified Board • Ensure the Board is knowledgeable • Effective Use of a Quality Committee • Board Leadership • Identify and Manage Risks • Selecting and Monitoring Performance Measures – “The single most important step the board can take to contribute to quality to establish a process and a schedule for monitoring and assessing performance in areas of hospital operations that contribute to quality.” Per Cochrane 2010

28. Monitoring Performance: Big Dots and Smaller Dots… Set Strategic Aims Macro-system Big Dots (< 6) Organizational (Dozens of indicators) Meso-system Health System & Team May be 100’s in total Micro-system Per Cochrane 2010

29. CHCs and Quality Oversight project • CHC Consultation Lessons • No consistent sector response: wide range of quality initiatives that differ in approach and scope • Lack of board-level governance focus • Lack of meaningful system guidance (LHIN indicator requirements ID need but no solution)

30. CHCs and Quality Oversight project • CHC Consultation Lessons (cont’d) • Growing sector identity and collaboration (BHO, Performance Management Committee) • Opportunity for shared learning and action • Different capacities by centre and geography • Can someone tell me what the truth is about Purkinje?

31. Final thoughts • Be the “useful engine” • Align yourselves with the quality agenda • Be the first group of Canadian PHC centres using the UK Primary care trigger tool • Demonstrate you perform better than other PHC models on traditional quality indicators • Chronic disease management

32. Final thoughts • Then you can show the way for other dimensions of quality that you value exceptionally, e.g. Patient-centred care, equity • Demonstrate the value of citizen engagement and community governance

33. Canadians deserve to receive access to: • PHC from a regular provider within 24 hours • Elective specialty care within 1 week • Elective surgery within 2 months

34. Final thoughts • Culture eats evidence for breakfast, e.g. reducing waits and delays requires process improvement – advanced access -- but implementing advanced access frequently requires dramatic cultural change • Enhancement of implicit scopes of practice • Including non-professionals and patient self management • Re-design of team relationships • Who’s valued by whom

35. Crossing the Quality Chasm: Ten Rules to Heal the Health Care System (www.iom.edu) 1. Care should be based upon continuous healing relationships instead of mainly in-person visits.2. Care should be customized for individual patients’ needs and values instead of being dictated by professionals.3. Care should be under the control of patients not professionals.4. Knowledge about care should be shared freely between patients and providers and between different providers. This transfer should take maximal advantage of leading-edge information technology. Patients should have unrestricted access to their records.5. Clinicians should make decisions on the basis of the best scientific evidence. Care should not vary illogically from clinician to clinician or from place to place.

36. Crossing the Quality Chasm: Ten Rules to Heal the Health Care System 6. Safety is the responsibility of the whole system not individual providers.7. The content of care is made transparent instead of being held in secret. The health system should give as much information as is required to patients and families to enable them to fully participate in clinical decisions, including where to seek care.8. Patients’ needs should be, as much as possible, anticipated and not treated in a reactive fashion.9. The health care system should continually decrease waste (goods, services, and time) instead of focusing on cost reduction.10. Providers should cooperate and work in high-functioning teams instead of attempting to work in isolation. Concern for patients should drive cooperation among providers and drive out competition based upon professional and organizational rivalries.

37. Final thoughts • Don’t re-invent wheels • Visit the Saskatoon CHC! • Use existing instruments like the UK trigger tool, the General Practice Assessment Questionnaire, etc. • Strengthen relationships with US CHCs • They have been some of the most successful health organizations to implement continuous quality improvement as a culture

38. Medicare is in the balance!

39. Summary: • Health care quality is a big issue • Especially in PHC • CHCs tend to do well compared with other PHC models, but… • CHCs need to get well ahead of the curve to protect the CHC model of care • Health care boards have important and emerging roles for quality oversight • Be true to your hearts and then use your heads

40. “Courage my Friends, ‘Tis Not Too Late to Make a Better World!” Tommy Douglas (per Alfred Lord Tennyson)