HiQuiPs is back with another installment of Expert’s Corner! For this post, we had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Aikta Verma about quality improvement (QI) and quality culture in the Emergency Department (ED). Dr. Verma is the Chief of the Department of Emergency Services at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. She completed a Masters of Health Sciences in Health Administration with a specific interest in QI. She is also an Assistant Professor at …
HiQuiPs: Introduction to Virtual Care – Virtual Processes
As you begin envisioning virtual care in your hospital, you begin to wonder about the details of your program. How do you funnel patients to where they need to be, and how do you ensure that patients receive the care they need? Furthermore, how do you ensure that these processes are cohesive and well structured? Welcome to the second part of the HiQuiPs introduction to virtual care series! In this post, we will …
HiQuiPs: Introduction to Virtual Care – General Principles
In late 2020 and early 2021, several hospitals implemented “virtual ED” programs as COVID-19 cases increasingly strained and threatened to overwhelm the healthcare system. You may be wondering what virtual care really is, and why it is becoming so prevalent in Canada. You may also wonder if this is a program that can be of benefit in your practice. In this month’s HiQuiPs post, we will introduce virtual care, its perceived need, and …
Expert’s Corner – Dr. Eddy Lang on Quality Improvement and Healthcare
Welcome to another HiQuiPs Expert Corner. In this edition, we asked Dr. Eddy Lang three questions about Quality Improvement (QI) given his impressive track record of system improvements. Dr. Eddy Lang is the current Department Head of Emergency Medicine and a Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. In addition, he serves as the Clinical Department Head for Emergency Medicine and a senior researcher at Alberta Health Services, Calgary zone. …
HiQuiPs: Navigating Ethics in Quality Improvement
You have decided to start a quality improvement (QI) project on improving access to fascia iliaca nerve blocks for hip fractures in your emergency department (ED). You have also gathered an interdisciplinary team of experts within your ED to help you identify structure, process, outcome and balance measures to use in your QI project. But how can you ensure you collect your data ethically when executing this project? Welcome back to another HiQuiPs …
HiQuiPs: Sim to Win
It’s a night shift, quieter than usual, though you wouldn’t say so out loud. As if the thought is enough to tempt fate, EMS rolls by. You got no patch, no heads up. “Car accident, just outside the hospital,” a paramedic calls as the patient is transferred onto the trauma stretcher. All you hear are unintelligible moans. All you see is blood streaming from a severely injured face. But the team’s already working, …