A new pan-Canadian initiative is spreading innovative approaches that have successfully improved patient care and value-for-money.
The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement launched the Spreading Healthcare Innovations Initiative, providing funding, coaching and other support to teams from Canadian health care organizations interested in implementing promising practices in their own facilities and regions.
“For over a decade, CFHI has helped healthcare delivery organizations implement new ways of working that improve quality and value-for-money and we’re pleased to accelerate this work,” says CFHI President Maureen O’Neil.
These practices will now be shared among organizations participating in two 12-month collaboratives of up to 10 teams each.
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The first collaborative focuses on reducing inappropriate antipsychotic medication use in long term care, where one in three residents is administered these medications without a diagnosis of psychosis. There is also significant variation among rates in different long term care homes, pointing to the potentially inappropriate use of these medications.
A CFHI-supported team at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority implemented an approach that helped providers better use data from the Resident Assessment Instrument/Minimum Data Set to identify patients who may benefit from non-drug therapies to treat behavioural issues associated with dementia.
“By looking at our resident’s personal histories rather than just their medical files, we were able to improve their quality of life and save healthcare dollars,” says Cynthia Sinclair, WRHA’s Manager of Personal Care Home Special Projects.
The new model reduced by 27 percent the number of residents on antipsychotic medication among a cohort at one facility, without any increase in behavioural symptoms or use of physical restraints.
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“We are excited to be collaborating with CFHI again to help other organizations make similar improvements,” adds Sinclair. The deadline for teams to apply to this collaborative is April 15, 2014.
The second collaborative spreads the successful INSPIRED model of care for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). INSPIRED—Implementing a Novel and Supportive Program of Individualized Care for patients and families living with REspiratory Disease—provides hospital-to-home support to patients and families living with COPD using a holistic, needs-based approach that reduces reliance on hospital-based care.
Providing patients and their families with self-management education, action plans, psychosocial and spiritual care support, and advance care planning, INSPIRED lowered emergency room visits by 62 percent and hospital admissions by 64 percent over a six-month period at Capital Health’s Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax where it was implemented by respirologist, Dr. Graeme Rocker, and his team.
COPD is the fourth-leading cause of death in Canada and a primary cause of hospital visits.
“INSPIRED narrows the gap between the care people need and the care they were receiving in our conventional healthcare system,” says Dr. Rocker, who is also CFHI’s Clinical Improvement Advisor. “By providing patients with individualized care based on their needs, we’ve been able to improve how they cope with their COPD. I’m looking forward to sharing this approach with other organizations across Canada.”
Teams interested in the INSPIRED collaborative should apply by June 30. Potential applicants are encouraged to take part in CFHI’s online workshop on the same topic, from April 22 – June 26.
For more information, visit cfhi-fcass.ca/innovation.