News

• “FHTs and NPLCs are the engine of team-based innovation in primary care in Ontario and likely all of Canada.” – Dr. Sean Blaine, AFHTO President, at the Opening Plenary.
• “Achieving the Triple Aim cannot happen without improved team experience.” – Both Dr.

St. Lawrence News article published on October 28, 2015. Article in full pasted below. Jan Murray, St. Lawrence News A small crowd gathered on at the Upper Canada Family Health Team Office at 25 Mill St. in Gananoque on Wednesday, Oct. 21 to celebrate the official opening of the facility.

AFHTO has awarded nine innovators for their work in making meaningful improvements in patient health, how patients experience their care, and how efficiently healthcare resources are used. The awards recognize individuals for their leadership and the work being conducted to improve the value of services delivered by primary care teams in Ontario. Winners were selected from over 50 nominations. The Bright Lights Award recipients are listed below.  Click on the links in the names below to read a summary of their achievements.

“We felt that it was the best way to see where we rate according to other teams to use for improvement work within our team”- AFHTO Member

Ontario’s primary care sector is moving towards a more comprehensive, patient-centered approach to quality health care delivery. To fully understand whether primary care has reached this goal of quality, there needs to be a way to measure both the comprehensiveness and patient-centered aspects of care.

AFHTO’s Algorithm Project was established in 2014 with a small group of QIDS Specialists interested in data mapping. The group quickly realized that there was a need to develop and test standard EMR queries to enhance the ability of all teams to extract and analyze EMR data, and to facilitate data clean-up initiatives.

Access to data in primary care is difficult, largely because the quality of data in Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) is poor. While it is important to improve the quality of data going into EMRs, it is also worthwhile to get better at using the data and systems as they are. Over 30 Quality Improvement Decision Support Specialists (QIDSS) are dispersed across the province to help members access and use data better to improve care, supported by our Quality Improvement in Primary Care Community of Practice.

It’s now one week to the AFHTO 2015 Conference on October 28 & 29! We look forward to seeing you all as we welcome close to 900 delegates from around the province. To ensure a smooth experience, please see below for some helpful tips for planning your arrival and stay at the conference: