In the past, New Vision Family Health Team has been involved in numerous quality and research initiatives, such as Quality in Family Practice through McMaster University Faculty of Family Medicine; Quality Improvement and Innovation Partnership through the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care; Healthcare Team Effectiveness Program through Queens University, and a research project with Wilfrid Laurier University. New Vision was involved in the Waterloo Wellington LHIN HealtheConnections Demonstration Project aimed at the improvement in the quality of care for patients with diabetes. As well, we were involved in a pilot project with Accreditation Canada in the Primary Care Services Standards Pilot Test, with the goal of increasing focus on the actual delivery of patient care, while also improving the quality and safety of patient interactions. New Vision was also recognized by the Ontario Health Quality Council, among other agencies, for achieving our goal to improve access and efficiency within our team.
In keeping with our core values, New Vision Family Health Team continues to participate in quality improvement initiatives, both externally and in-house. For example, New Vision is working in collaboration with health researchers from the University of Waterloo on a strategy to streamline complex care patient visits throughout the clinic. The overall goal of this project is to aid patients with multiple co-morbidities to have less frequent office visits through more comprehensive care.
New Vision Family Health Team submits a Quality Improvement Plan to Health Quality Ontario annually as a commitment to set and meet quality improvement goals through addressing key areas to focus on. New Vision uses results from our annual Patient Satisfaction Survey to guide our submission and tailor our quality improvement initiatives to our patient’s needs. Moreover, New Vision participates in Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario’s (AFHTO) Data2Decision submission to compare our current quality improvement performance to that of other Family Health Teams in Ontario. It is through this submission that we are able to gage our clinic’s current performance in certain areas, as well as reach out to our peers for improvement guidance.
New Vision Family Health Team also collects data on our programs and services and reports these findings to the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care as part of our mandate.
