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Quality Improvement

2020-21 Surgical Quality Improvement Campaign

Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network Cut the Count campaign wordmark featuring icons of pills, a surgical scalpel, a patient in a hospital bed, an IV drip, handwashing and a heart monitor

Hospitals are coming together for a second year to help patients effectively manage pain while continuing to Cut the Count—reduce the number of opioid pills they prescribe to surgical patients at discharge (where appropriate).


Maintaining momentum

This year, choose at least one new procedure and make one change :

  • Adopt a common prescribing protocol;

  • Use multimodal pain management; and/or

  • Talk to your patients about safe opioid use and other treatment options.

Cut the Count is a “Committed to Better” campaign involving 46 hospital sites across Ontario that are part of the Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network.


Approximately 72% of patients undergoing surgery in the province will be discharged from an Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network member hospital.

Between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, Surgical Network hospitals, supported by Ontario Health (Quality), are coming together for a second year to Cut the Count and reduce the number of opioid pills their surgical teams prescribe to patients at discharge.

Other hospitals can join the challenge too.

Here’s how to get started:

  1. This year, choose at least one new surgical procedure for your hospital to focus on.

  2. Choose one of the following changes to implement:

  3. Track your progress: Collect data using the process and balancing measures below to help you determine the success of your approach and its impact on patients.


    Process Measures

    • Percentage of patients prescribed opioids according to the common opioid prescribing protocol

    • Percentage of patients whose pain was managed using a multimodal approach

    • Percentage of patients prescribed an opioid who received supplementary information about pain management

    • Percentage of patients prescribed an opioid who received supplementary information about the potential benefits and harms of opioid therapy

    • Percentage of patients who receive a written transition plan that includes appropriate use of opioids when transitioning from hospital to home


    Balancing Measures*

    • Rate of readmission

    • Length of stay

    • Patient satisfaction and pain rating

    *Balancing measures check to ensure changes implemented to improve one element of patient care are not causing new problems in other areas of care.

  4. Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network members: Indicate your participation in this campaign in your Surgical Quality Improvement Plans. The primary indicator for this campaign—number of opioid pills prescribed at discharge—will be available in the drop-down menu.

For more information on the Cut the Count campaign or to join the Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network, please contact ONSQIN@hqontario.ca.

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