Governing quality and safety in Saskatoon

I am in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada to attend and speak at the annual health care quality summit of the Health Quality Council, an independent agency that measures and reports on quality of care in the province, promotes improvement, and engages its partners in building a better health system.  In advance of the summit, I was invited to attend a meeting of the Quality and Safety Committee of the Saskatoon Regional Health Authority.  This is the board committee charged with governance review of safety and quality, covering hospitals but also community-based health facilities throughout the province.

I was tremendously impressed with the expertise and commitment of the staff and board members.  (Committee chair Doug Finnie is seen here with Petrina McGrath, VP for quality and interprofessional practice.)  The conversations were thoughtful and probing, demanding accountability, but also with a heavy dose of positive reinforcement from the board members.

Here you see Barb Evans, pharmacy manager, giving a report on on medication reconciliation and documenting steady progress in this domain.  That was one of several reports today, including one on fall prevention in long-term care facilities and another on pathology lab process improvements.