Perhaps I am one of the lucky ones

Abstract

I recently participated in the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) webinar on quality and safety, in which I was asked to address the topic of engaging physicians in performance measurement, quality and safety. I am not a physician, but much of my work in healthcare has involved working with clinical leaders in these areas. At St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, we started our quality and safety journey by creating a medical quality scorecard specifically designed for physicians. The card, written in physician-friendly versus business language, enabled physicians to drop the traditional business quadrants of finance and human resources and select four quadrants focused on clinical process and outcome indicators that matched their daily practice. Quality improvement initiatives resulting from the scorecard included the launch of a sepsis-management campaign in the emergency room and a new approach to neonatal safety.