OHA, GCE and HQO develop Quality and Patient Safety Governance Toolkit

Effective governance is increasingly recognized as one of the most impactful ways to improve quality and patient care in our hospitals, and a new online toolkit is helping hospital Board Members exercise their role in achieving better patient experiences.

The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), its Governance Centre of Excellence (GCE), and Health Quality Ontario (HQO) recently developed the Quality and Patient Safety Governance Toolkit, an online resource for Ontario's hospital boards, as a way to engage the broader quality and patient safety community. The toolkit is publicly available at http://www.oha.com/patientsafetygovernancetoolkit.

Since each hospital and community follows a different path to improving patient safety and quality governance, the toolkit provides a range of guidance that can be tailored to the unique needs of Ontario's diverse hospital organizations.

The Quality and Patient Safety Governance Toolkit features leading practices in quality and patient safety governance - adapted to fit the Ontario setting - and combines an easy-to-use, online format with practical and functional advice that hospitals are using as part of their quality improvement efforts.

"Ontario hospitals are fortunate to be led by experienced directors who bring a broad range of experience, skill and perspectives to their organizations," said Dr. Ben Chan, HQO President and CEO. "This toolkit will help guide board members to aim for high levels of quality and patient safety using the best evidence and research available in the province today."

"Realising quality and efficiency is one of the OHA's strategic directions, and as the board members in Ontario's hospitals are stepping up to embrace their expanding and evolving roles, we are pleased to provide them with a useful product that can help them deliver on their organizations' quality agendas," said Tom Closson, President and CEO, OHA.

As community volunteers, Ontario's hospital board members have the experience, skill and perspective needed to connect hospitals with the communities they serve. As hospital boards' roles evolve, the OHA, its GCE and HQO are ensuring that hospital board members also have the support they need to ensure that patients receive high quality care.