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CPSA’s Standards of Practice Quality Improvement

A component of the Physician Practice Improvement Program (PPIP)

Why CPSA’s Standards of Practice?

Being compliant with CPSA’s Standards of Practice (SoP) involves not only knowing what they are, but selecting metrics from the standards to critically assess whether any gaps exist in your practice.

This PPIP quality improvement (QI) activity specifically requires the use of a CPSA standard of practice, to reflect on whether you are meeting the requirements of your chosen SoP in your practice.

Mandatory elements of this PPIP activity

  • Using a CPSA standard of practice (SoP) as a benchmark to reflect on practice data and assess your adherence to a corresponding SoP. For example:
  • Developing and documenting an action plan to capture how you plan to address and implement your improvement opportunity.
    • We recommend using SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely) goals to increase the likelihood of success.
    • You may also want to familiarize yourself with the iterative nature of quality improvement, for example by reviewing the PDSA (Plan Do Study Act) cycle.
    • CPSA has a template for an action plan on our website, or you can create your own.

CPSA also has two existing competence tools that meet the requirements of a standard of practice QI activity:

    • Complete an online, self-directed review of your patient records, using our Standards of Practice Metrics tool (we have a version for primary care and one for referral encounters).
    • If you’re part of a group practice, strengthen and enhance it through our Group Practice Review.

Facilitation

Facilitation is encouraged for all PPIP activities but not required for the SoP activity.

A facilitator can be a colleague, supervisor, trained coach or facilitator or other individual who is qualified to assist you in framing your data in a constructive manner. Some resources and tools available for self-reflection include:

Examples of PPIP activities

If you’re looking for some inspiration, we have examples of all three activities, including action plans, submitted by Alberta physicians who have met their PPIP requirements.

PPIP supports the use of data in an ethical manner. CPSA encourages physicians to use the following free resource and support tools if there are questions regarding ethical data usage: Alberta Innovates: A Project Ethics Community Consensus Initiative (ARECCI)

Questions about PPIP & QI?

Phone: 780-969-4986
Toll-free: 1-800-561-3899 ext. 4986 (in Canada)

Interested in a presentation on PPIP?
Please submit a Speaker Request form.

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