Over the last five years, several organizations in Ontario have developed and shared reports to support primary care clinicians in their efforts to improve patient care. Until now, these reports were produced independently and in a largely uncoordinated fashion.
Each of these initiatives were intended to fill an important gap in access to information. It wasn’t too long ago that there was no mechanism for family physicians practicing in Ontario to see comparative data on their own practice. As recently as 2015, less than a third of family physicians in Ontario reported routinely receiving information on how the clinical performance of their practice compared with that of peers. In contrast, 70% of family physicians practicing in the UK reported receiving this type of information.
Though well-intended, the number of reports in Ontario then became overwhelming. Many family physicians indicated they did not access or read the reports they were receiving due to time pressures, little relevance or concerns about validity. This was expressed by physician leaders at a roundtable called to address the issue. Not suprisingly, there was clear and shared understanding across providers of the reports that these multiple uncoordinated reporting efforts could lead to disengagement and accelerate burnout.