Knowledge sharing is a vital component of a strong health care system. That’s why at Accreditation Canada, we help organizations get the word out when they’ve created solutions they can share with others. We call these solutions Leading Practices, and they have a proven positive impact on health care delivery, quality, and patient safety. Our Leading Practices Database includes nearly 1,000 innovative and effective practices available to anyone with internet access.
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Here’s how our database works: Health care organizations from across Canada submit a potential Leading Practice electronically, and a committee of external reviewers (including health care experts and Accreditation Canada surveyors and staff) evaluate it against a set of criteria to determine whether it should be accepted. The turnaround time from submission to decision is approximately six weeks.
Criteria for evaluating Leading Practices:
- Is it innovative and creative? 2. Is it client- or family-centred? 3. Has it been evaluated? 4. Does it demonstrate the intended results? 5. It is sustainable? 6. Can it be adapted/adopted by other organizations?
Successful submissions are published in English and French in our Database. These health care solutions cover varied aspects of the care continuum, including risk management, service delivery, education and training, patient and client safety, governance, and quality improvement initiatives.
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As a major proponent of improving the quality of health care and social services organizations in Canada, we want to make sure we help organizations across the country make the most of their lessons learned. A searchable, online database is an excellent and simple way to make this happen. We encourage you to go to accreditation.ca/leading-practices and consider submitting your organization’s innovative practices for review and potential inclusion on our database. Leading Practices are tangible ways for organizations to help each other transform care and contribute to an effective, accountable, and sustainable system.
Leading Practice: Sickkids’ Daily Continuous Improvement Program
The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) submitted a Leading Practice in June of 2013 for its Daily Continuous Improvement Program (Daily CIP). The program helps managers and supervisors engage staff in continuous improvement activities and increase organizational performance. It includes daily risk-identification and mitigation discussions between Managers and Clinical Support Nurses, improvement huddles with all staff members, and monthly reviews of a unit-level scorecard and associated plan-do-study-act work.
To date, the Daily CIP has resulted in increased staff engagement scores; over 2,600 staff-initiated improvements, including 80 large improvement initiatives; and improved performance in areas particular to each unit (e.g., medication reconciliation rates, discharge timing, hand-hygiene compliance).
For more details about this initiative, search Daily Continuous Improvement Program in the Leading Practices Database. You can also contact travis.beamish@sickkids.ca or ali.shahzada@sickkids.ca about the program.
Leading Practice: End-of-life care
CSSS Pointe-de-l’Île in Québec submitted a Leading Practice in 2013 about its end-of-life care program. The program was created with input from residents, their families, and employees and addresses wide-ranging aspects of end-of-life care.
Volunteers receive appropriate training, and a care kit is made available to residents and families. The kit includes items like soft sheets and clothing for the resident. Loved ones are periodically provided with coffee and refreshments in a non-intrusive manner. Three books are also provided—one that explains the physical process of passing to the family/loved ones, one for volunteers, and one in which caregivers and loved ones can write out their thoughts. The post-mortem process has also been revised to better address everyone’s needs and wishes.
Over 150 residents and their families have benefitted from this unique program, which prioritizes dignity and comfort. This Leading Practice is available using the search term humanitude. You can also contact claude.riendeau.pdi@ssss.gouv.qc.ca for more information.