CQIP

The majority of patients visiting the University of Saskatchewan’s Student Wellness Centre are seeking care for mental health related illnesses. The Student Wellness Centre is a designated primary health care site that includes primary care providers, counsellors, psychiatrists, and a mental health nurse. Dr. Ansell’s project is exploring whether a shared care model reduces the wait time to specialist consultation and if the shared care model results in happier patients and providers. View her poster to find out!

Dr. Fakhir’s team chose acute bronchiolitis in children as the focus of their QI project because there is a lot of variation in how the condition is treated across different hospitals, provinces, and even countries. Dr. Fakhir found physicians in the former Cypress Health Region were not using evidence-based clinical pathways, that there were barriers to pathway use, and a lack of organizational support. The aim of Dr. Fakhir’s project was to reduce chest x-rays and respiratory swabs by 50% by the end of 2017. View his poster to learn more about his project!

The focus of Dr. Fink’s CQIP project was on improving transfers and handovers between tertiary care and the community. Safe handovers require timely sharing of concise, reliable information about patients. After reviewing a week’s worth of discharge summaries from internal medicine, Dr. Fink found that while the quality of information was good there are often delays in making that information available. He introduced a number of process improvements aimed at improving timeliness of information sharing. View his poster to learn more about his project!

Dr. Heggie had the perception that many visits to the Yorkton Regional Health Centre’s ER were by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is best managed by family physicians in their offices, as through the use of patient tools to help people self manage their condition. The former Sunrise Health Region had the highest smoking rate in the province (28.9% compared to 24.6% in Sask.). YRHC ER faced frequent visits for COPD due to advanced age, comorbidities, current smoking, and a lack of referral to community resources for COPD education and self-management of chronic disease. Dr. Heggie's aim was to increase the referral rate of possible COPD patients from the YRHC ER to a community pulmonary rehabilitation program by 50% by October 2017. View her poster to learn more about her project!

Inguinal hernias are fairly common. Surgeons often receive referrals from family physicians with an ultrasound accompanying it. Typically, inguinal hernias are easy to detect on clinical examination, especially if they are larger ones. Surgeons find that these ultrasounds rarely influence how they treat patients. As a result, reducing these unnecessary ultrasounds could save patients and the health care system time and resources. For his CQIP project, Dr. Ogaick communicated to general practitioners that an ultrasound is not necessary for patients with inguinal hernias that are readily apparent on clinical examination, then looked at the impact this had on the number of ultrasounds accompanying referrals. View his poster to learn more about his project!

Studies have shown that 30% of antibiotics prescribed in intensive care units (ICUs) are unnecessary or inappropriate. Effective strategies for promoting judicious antimicrobial prescribing in this care setting must take into account the critical conditions of ICU patients and the collaborative approach to care on these units. For his CQIP project, Dr. Peermohamed and a pharmacist met with the ICU team in-person three times per week to discuss all patients actively receiving antibiotics; after these meetings, they provided recommendations to the ICU team. View his poster to learn more about his project!

Dr. Rees's quality improvement project focused on developing a subspeciality service model for breast pathologists to improve care for breast cancer patients and reduce inefficiencies. Breast cancer pathology reports provide essential information and contribute to the management plan of breast cancer patients. Poor quality, delayed, or incomplete breast cancer reports impact the quality of patient care. In the past, breast cancer cases have been reported by general pathologists in Saskatoon and the quality and turnaround time of these reports has not been monitored. Dr. Rees began to measure and monitor the quality and turnaround time of breast cancer pathology reports. View her poster to learn more about her project!

While working in the pre-op clinic, Dr. Shahid noticed that unnecessary testing happens on a daily basis. The results of preoperative tests rarely change how patients are managed and in some cases can cause them harm. Dr. Shahid worked with a team of stakeholders, including experts and representatives from different departments, to look at preoperative testing done on patients scheduled for knee and hip surgery. The team found most unnecessary testing occurs because providers are not aware of guidelines and the lack of a standardized tool or protocol for testing. The team's goal was to reduce unnecessary testing before surgery by 50%. View her poster to learn more about her project!

Systematic reviews show that a single fraction of radiation of treatment can provide similar results to multiple factions for palliation of painful bone metastases. In Canada, Choosing Wisely Canada released recommendations  in 2014 specifically for radiation oncology on using a single fraction for uncomplicated bone metastases. In 2016, the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC) released a spotlight report on sustainability and quality in cancer control recommending the use of a single fraction of radiation therapy for painful bone metastases. CPAC identified the desire to have a pilot project to identify ways that practitioners can increase the use of a single fraction in jurisdictions, of which Saskatchewan and Manitoba were chosen. Dr. Wright's future plan for his CQIP project is to obtain and discuss survey results, collect real-time data on an ongoing basis, share anonymous results with practitioners, and implement processes to promote single fraction use. View his poster to learn more about his project!