What is Quality Improvement (QI)?
According to The Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada (FMRAC)’s statement on physician quality improvement:
"Patients deserve and expect the best possible care from their physicians, and all licensed physicians in Canada must be able to demonstrate that they are sustaining and enhancing their competence throughout their careers."
- FMRAC
PPIP was launched by CPSA on Jan. 1, 2021, to fulfill its legislated mandate of ensuring competence within the profession. All of CPSA’s regulated members must participate in PPIP.
Involvement in competence activities is mandated under part 3, section 50 of the Health Professions Act. Participation in any Continuing Competence program is completely confidential under sections 52 and 53 of the Health Professions Act.
How to start a cycle of QI
As part of the Physician Practice Improvement Program (PPIP), Alberta’s physicians must incorporate at least one personal development and two quality improvement activities into their practice over a continuous five-year cycle. One quality improvement activity must use CPSA’s Standards of Practice as a metric to identify opportunities for practice enhancement.
What is quality improvement based on CPSA’s Standards of Practice?
Being compliant with the Standards of Practice involves not only knowing what they are, but critically assessing whether any gaps exist in your practice by selecting metrics from the standards to help you highlight these elements.
The following elements are all part of a robust quality improvement activity:
- Reviewing CPSA SOP objective data about your practice.
- Facilitation of your data with a colleague, direct supervisor, formal facilitator or trained coach.
- Developing and documenting an action plan—use our template to identify all the elements required for a robust QI activity.
- Implementing your plan and evaluating your success.
How robust your activity is depends on what you would like to achieve but at minimum, this quality improvement activity must include use of the Standards of Practice as your source of objective data and development of an action plan to address any gaps.
As this program evolves, the elements may change but ultimately, your quality improvement activity should incite lasting change that is meaningful to you and your practice.
Below are some tips to help get you started:
- Assess and get a clearer understanding of your practice and their alignment with the Standards of Practice by taking advantage of CPSA’s many competence tools:
- Review one or two of CPSA’s Standards of Practice in depth, reflect on whether your practice is consistent with the expectations in the standards and identify areas for improvement.
- If you’re part of a group practice, strengthen and enhance it through our Group Practice Review program.
- Complete a self-directed review of your patient records, using CPSA’s new Standards of Practice Metrics tools.
Find out more about other required activities in PPIP’s five-year improvement cycle:
Practice improvement resources
Programs and organizations listed are possible avenues to completion of a PPIP activity. Please note that the list of resources is not exhaustive and if you are aware of additional resources, please let us know.
Practice improvement cycle information |
Quality improvement tools & resources |
Personal development tools & resources |
Standards of practice tools & resources |
Practice improvement programs & courses |
Quality improvement articles |
CPSA's PPIP Tools
Questions about PPIP & QI?
Phone: 780-969-4986
Toll-free: 1-800-561-3899 ext. 4986 (in Canada)
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