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Quality Improvement

Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network

Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network logo

Read our new Program Evaluation here

WHAT'S NEW?

2024-25 Surgical Quality Improvement Campaign

Hospitals are coming together to improve surgical recovery with a focus on environmental sustainability. In Year 2 of the campaign Cut the Carbon: Reducing Surgical Waste teams are continuing to promote sustainable healthcare solutions while enhancing patient care.

The network will also be participating in Ontario Health’s Delirium Aware Safer Healthcare multiyear campaign. To learn more about how teams are working to reduce delirium rates in hospital, click here.

Learn More

The Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network (ON-SQIN) is a Community of Practice that brings together surgical teams from all hospitals and specialties across the province.

Members connect regularly via educational webinars, meetings and the annual Ontario Surgical Quality Conference, and identify opportunities to improve surgical care quality using clinical data collected through the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP).

Dr. Timothy Jackson is Health Quality Ontario’s Provincial Surgical Lead.

For information on joining the Community of Practice, please email ONSQIN@ontariohealth.ca.

 

Tools and Resources

Participating Hospitals

Location

Bluewater Health

Sarnia

Brantford General Hospital

Brantford

Cambridge Memorial Hospital 

Cambridge 

Chatham-Kent Health Alliance

Chatham

Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario 

Ottawa 

Collingwood General and Marine Hospital 

Collingwood 

Cornwall Community Hospital 

Cornwall 

Grand River Hospital, Kitchener Waterloo Campus 

Kitchener 

Grey Bruce Health Services 

Owen Sound 

Guelph General Hospital

Guelph

Halton Healthcare, Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital 

Oakville 

Hamilton Health Sciences, Juravinski Hospital 

Hamilton 

Hamilton Health Sciences, McMaster Children’s Hospital 

Hamilton 

Health Sciences North

Sudbury

The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) 

Toronto 

Humber River Hospital 

Toronto 

Joseph Brant Hospital

Burlington

Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Kingston General Hospital 

Kingston 

Lakeridge Health, Oshawa Hospital 

Oshawa 

London Health Sciences Centre, Children’s Hospital 

London 

London Health Sciences Centre, University Hospital 

London 

London Health Sciences Centre, Victoria Hospital 

London 

Mackenzie Health 

Richmond Hill 

Michael Garron Hospital 

East York 

Hôpital Montfort 

Ottawa 

Niagara Health System, St. Catharine’s Site 

St. Catharine’s 

North York General Hospital 

North York 

Oak Valley Health, Markham Stouffville Hospital 

Markham 

Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital 

Orillia 

Peterborough Regional Health Centre

Peterborough

Quinte Heath Care 

Belleville 

The Ottawa Hospital 

Ottawa 

Trillium Health Partners, Mississauga Hospital 

Mississauga 

Pembroke Regional Hospital 

Pembroke 

Queensway Carleton Hospital 

Ottawa 

Renfrew Victoria Hospital 

Renfrew 

Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre 

Barrie 

Scarborough Health Network, Centenary Hospital 

Scarborough 

Scarborough Health Network, General Hospital 

Scarborough 

Sinai Health System, Mount Sinai Hospital 

Toronto 

Southlake Regional Health Centre 

Newmarket 

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre 

Toronto 

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton 

Hamilton 

Unity Health, St. Joseph’s Health Centre Toronto 

Toronto 

Unity Health, St. Michael’s Hospital 

Toronto 

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre 

Thunder Bay 

University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital 

Toronto 

University Health Network, Toronto Western Hospital 

Toronto 

William Osler Health Centre, Brampton Civic Hospital 

Brampton 

William Osler Health Centre, Etobicoke General Hospital 

Etobicoke 

Windsor Regional Hospital

Windsor

The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program® (ACS NSQIP®) is a leading validated, risk-adjusted, outcomes-based program to measure and drive improvements in surgical care. For each year of participation in ACS NSQIP, a hospital has, on average, the opportunity to:

  • prevent 250–500 complications

  • save 12–36 lives

  • reduce health care costs by millions of dollars

Ontario hospitals that participate in ACS NSQIP through the Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network are part of the Ontario collaborative of ACS NSQIP called “NSQIP-ON.” Participating surgical teams have access to high-quality clinical data that can be accurately compared against data at the local, provincial, national and international levels. This allows providers to benchmark top performers, and can be used to identify areas for improvement and track progress.

ACS NSQIP data are:

  • Not administrative: data are taken from the patient’s medical chart, with identifying factors removed

  • Risk-adjusted:ACS NSQIP lets you compare apples to apples. For example, caring for a chronically ill 75-year-old is very different from treating a healthy 21-year-old, and quality measures should take these differences into account

  • Case mix–adjusted: ACS NSQIP accounts for the complexity of operations performed, allowing for more accurate benchmarking

  • Based on 30-day patient outcomes:Studies show half or more of all complications occur after the patient leaves the hospital, often leading to costly readmissions. ACS NSQIP tracks patients for 30 days after their operation, providing a more complete picture of their care

Improvement in surgical care has benefits for:

  • Patients, who experience fewer complications and better outcomes, shorter hospital stays and improved satisfaction

  • Surgeons and surgical teams, who receive robust reports that provide performance information to guide surgical care and identify areas for improvement

  • Hospitals, which sustain reduced disparities of care and improved patient outcomes and realize lower costs of care, through avoidance of complications

To learn more about ACS NSQIP visit https://www.facs.org/quality-programs/acs-nsqip

To learn more about the Ontario collaborative of ACS NSQIP (NSQIP-ON), please email ONSQIN@ontariohealth.ca.

As one of the first steps in their quality improvement journeys, Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network members review their ACS NSQIP data to identify areas for improvement and strategize a plan to address those issues. Surgical Quality Improvement Plans (SQIPs) are a tool used to help teams leverage their data to create actionable ideas and goals.

Surgical Quality Improvement Plans were adapted from the provincially mandated Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs), and serve as blueprints for how a surgical team will strive to improve quality at their hospital. A SQIP is a programmatic QIP designed to help Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network members:

  • identify areas for improvement (using their ACS NSQIP data)

  • implement evidence-based quality improvement initiatives and change ideas

  • track data, process measures and outcomes to determine the effects of their quality improvement activities and change ideas

Submit your SQIP using the SQIP Navigator online tool.

Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network logo

SUBMIT HERE

Community of Practice

Access the Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network community. Learn, share and innovate with others committed to improving the quality of surgical care in Ontario.

If you have questions, please contact ONSQIN@ontariohealth.ca.

Members of NSQIP-ON can login here.


Login

IMPROVING SURGICAL CARE IN ONTARIO

This report captures highlights from Health Quality Ontario’s evaluation of the first 18 months of the program and the work accomplished by members of the Ontario Surgical Network during this time.

Read the Report
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Report on Surgical Quality in Ontario

Quality Surgery: How an international quality improvement program is helping various hospitals in Ontario make surgeries safer.

Click here to read our blog.

Read the report
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