Quest For Quality In Canadian Health Care

In April 2001, the Prime Minister established the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada. Its mandate was to review medicare, engage Canadians in a national dialogue on its future, and make recommendations to enhance the system's quality and sustainability. The 47 recommendations in this report outline actions that must be taken in 10 critical areas, starting by renewing the foundations of medicare and considering Canada's role in improving health around the world.

Second in a series of publications from the Institute of Medicine's Quality of Health Care in America project Today's health care providers have more research findings and more technology available to them than ever before. Yet recent reports have raised serious doubts about the quality of health care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm makes an urgent call for fundamental change to close the quality gap. This book recommends a sweeping redesign of the American health care system and provides overarching principles for specific direction for policymakers, health care leaders, clinicians, regulators, purchasers, and others. In this comprehensive volume the committee offers: A set of performance expectations for the 21st century health care system. A set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships. A suggested organizing framework to better align the incentives inherent in payment and accountability with improvements in quality. Key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen clinical information systems. Analyzing health care organizations as complex systems, Crossing the Quality Chasm also documents the causes of the quality gap, identifies current practices that impede quality care, and explores how systems approaches can be used to implement change.

While Canadians are proud of their healthcare system, the reality is that it is fragmented and disorganized. Instead of a pan-Canadian system, it is a "system of systems" - thirteen provincial and territorial systems and a federal system. As a result, Canadian healthcare has not only become one of the costliest in the world, but is falling well behind many developed countries in terms of quality. Canadians increasingly realize that their healthcare system is no longer fiscally sustainable, yet change remains elusive. The standard claim is that Canada's multijurisdictional approach makes system-wide reform nearly impossible. Toward a Healthcare Strategy for Canadians disputes this reasoning, making the case for a comprehensive, system-wide, made-in-Canada healthcare strategy. It looks at the mechanics of change and suggests ways in which the various participants in the system - governments, healthcare professionals, the private sector, and patients - can work collaboratively to transform a second-rate system. Addressing critical issues of health human resources, electronic health records, integrated care, and pharmacare, Toward a Healthcare Strategy for Canadians shows how a system-wide strategic approach to this crucial policy area can make a difference in Canada’s healthcare system in the future.

Canada’s fragmented healthcare system is one of the most expensive among the OECD countries, yet the quality of its performance is mediocre at best. Canada lacks a system-wide healthcare strategy that brings together many individual federal, provincial, and territorial strategies into a comprehensive and coherent whole. Managing a Canadian Healthcare Strategy is a collection of ten policy research essays by leading Canadian and international scholars who address three important questions. First, if Canada had a unifying strategy, how would the country measure its success and monitor its performance? Second, who are the agents of change to bring about a Canadian system-wide strategy? Third, how can the jurisdictional realities of Canada’s political system be managed to bring about strategic reform? The final section in the volume explores ways to overcome the barriers and impediments that preoccupy Canadians’ concerns about healthcare. A companion volume to Toward a Healthcare Strategy for Canadians, the contributors to Managing a Canadian Healthcare Strategy turn to the critical importance of how necessary healthcare changes can be best implemented.

First Published in 2018. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company. What Makes a Good Health Care System? Examines the various assumptions that underpin the different views of what makes a good health care system. The national systems in the UK, Australia and Canada are thoroughly examined. Each country has a different view of what a good health care system is trying to achieve, and the book elucidates these by highlighting key policy documents and comments from key stakeholders. Case studies emphasise the diverse needs and expectations of individuals, examining and comparing concepts of health needs, quality as a measure of 'good-ness' and the various ideas on Gold Standards. This book will be valuable reading for all healthcare managers and clinicians with management responsibilities, as well as policy makers and shapers and all those with a general interest in health.

How good is the quality of health care in the United States? Is quality improving? Or is it suffering? While the average person on the street can follow the state of the economy with economic indicators, we do not have a tool that allows us to track trends in health care quality. Beginning in 2003, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will produce an annual report on the national trends in the quality of health care delivery in the United States. AHRQ commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to help develop a vision for this report that will allow national and state policy makers, providers, consumers, and the public at large to track trends in health care quality. Envisioning the National Health Care Quality Report offers a framework for health care quality, specific examples of the types of measures that should be included in the report, suggestions on the criteria for selecting measures, as well as advice on reaching the intended audiences. Its recommendations could help the national health care quality report to become a mainstay of our nation's effort to improve health care.

This text examines the issues and trends impacting Canadian nursing. The five parts of the text cover everything from the development of the profession of nursing in Canada, to discussions of nursing knowledge, nursing research, and the theoretical foundations of modern nursing. The authors also examine issues in the delivery of nursing care as well as nursing education, credentialing, standards of care, and entry to practice. Additional chapters address collaboration, the increasingly flexible delivery in nursing education, and health informatics. The book concludes with a look at Canadian nurses’ growing role in international nursing and Canadian projects that have been implemented around the globe. Detailed references at the end of each chapter Two-colour design draws attention to each section heading Dedicated Evolve website enhances the teaching and learning experience New student-friendly features include Canadian Research Focus boxes that highlight current and relevant research, and Reflective Thinking boxes that provide focused opportunities for reflection and discussion WebLinks provide information for relevant nursing and health care organizations Chapter Objectives, End-of-chapter Critical Thinking Questions, and Web Resources have been added to engage students in their own learning With additional images that highlight key individuals and events in Canadian nursing, the text is more visually appealing than ever! Chapters combined and reorganized to reflect reviewer feedback and change in Canadian teaching focus