How can I start my quality improvement activities for the Physician Practice Improvement Program?

Practice-driven quality improvement can be done individually (e.g. assessing your prescribing), by participating in a clinic group practice change (e.g. changing office processes to increase efficiency or access), or through a systems-level project (e.g. participating as a local leader in a multi-site, patient outcome initiative). Here are the basics to help you get started:

• Understand your practice through the use of data. For example:
  • Review prescribing data through MD Snapshot-Prescribing.
  • Identify and reflect on risk factors through your MD Snapshot-Practice Checkup.
  • Evaluate your clinic’s screening or processes (such as third next appointment availability) by looking at your EMR data.
  • Regularly study the Health Quality Council of Alberta’s panel reports or Alberta Health Services’ dashboard metrics.
• After reviewing your data and identifying improvement opportunities, develop an action plan.

A standards of practice quality improvement activity involves using CPSA’s Standards of Practice as a benchmark to reflect on your practice and identify opportunities for improvement. For example:

• Review your EMR data and self-assess whether you’re meeting the requirements of the Patient Record Content
• Once you’ve successfully reviewed and assessed your practice, use this information to identify opportunities for practice improvements. Then create an action plan to address gaps.
• Once you’ve executed your plan, evaluate its success using quality improvement methodology and determine your next steps.
• Then develop an action plan.
• If you’re part of a group practice, strengthen and enhance it through our Group Practice Review.