Collaborative is the largest quality improvement initiative in province's history

For immediate release February 24, 2006

Today marks a major milestone for Saskatchewan, as the largest quality improvement initiative in the province's history is officially underway. Close to 200 family physicians, medical staff, health care managers and other providers have gathered in Saskatoon for the Saskatchewan Chronic Disease Management (CDM) Collaborative.

The CDM Collaborative is a project to improve the quality of care for people with diabetes and coronary artery disease, and improve access to physician practices. A Collaborative is a quality improvement method that shares ideas on how to improve care and makes health care professionals part of a network of experts and fellow learners. It is a method that has been used in other provinces and countries, and has proven an effective way to create rapid, sustainable improvement, particularly for complex chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

"It is not enough to simply tell providers what they should be doing," says Dr. Ben Chan, Chief Executive Officer of HQC, the agency leading and supporting the project. "We want to help them figure out how they can implement best practices. We are giving participants tools to monitor results, and if an idea works well and results in improvement, it will be shared broadly."

Thirty-five family physician practices (nearly 20% of family physicians in Saskatchewan) are participating in the CDM Collaborative, as well as representatives from all 13 health regions. Each Regional Health Authority has created and is supporting a multi-disciplinary quality improvement team; the literature shows that provider teamwork is key to quality improvement.

The CDM Collaborative will run in two cycles, known as "waves". Wave One began this past November with an orientation; today's event, Learning Workshop One, marks the start of the improvement phase of the project.

"Over the past three months, practices have been focused on developing a list of their patients with diabetes and/or coronary artery disease, as well as collecting their baseline data," says Dr. Chan. "With the pre-work done, practices will take this information and start to make improvements in the areas where their baseline results show the most need."

Throughout the CDM Collaborative, participants will be tracking improvement on key measures, such as blood pressure, whether patients are receiving appropriate medications, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and more. They will also be looking at ways to reduce wait times for appointments, and measuring improvement in access. Successful strategies will be shared with all the Regional Improvement Teams.

"We have been thrilled with the enthusiastic response we've had to this initiative from the health regions," says Dr. Stewart McMillan, Board Chair of HQC. "Their support has been instrumental to developing the Regional Improvement Teams. Everyone involved - from our health region partners to the front-line providers - is truly committed to improving the quality of care for people with these chronic conditions."

Collaborative participants will meet again in May and then in September. Wave Two of the Collaborative will begin recruitment in May, with the orientation scheduled for November.

"It's very exciting to be part of this initiative," says Dr. Chan. "This is a major milestone for Saskatchewan, but it also goes beyond our borders. This project has attracted interest from other provinces and countries. People are definitely watching to see how this works in our setting, and to see what improvements we are able to achieve."

Results of the project will be released publicly in early 2007. More information about the project is available on the HQC web site, www.hqc.sk.ca/cdm.

-30-

For further information:

Shari Furniss, Communications Consultant

Tel: (306) 668-8810 ext 112, Cell: 220-5075

Email: sfurniss@hqc.sk.ca