Using Data for Quality Improvement (DDQI)

The Data-Driven Quality Improvement (DDQI) tool is designed to help physicians examine their own practice performance and reflect on how they deliver health care to their patients. You may also find this exercise helpful in identifying opportunities for improvement. Practice-level data and measures of performance can be generated in many ways (see below).

Instructions:

1. Using the data/evidence of your choice, review the information and select an area of your practice you would like to enhance. 
2. Based on the identified improvement opportunity, complete the Reflection Exercise below. A reflective exercise guidance document is available online.

What Data/Evidence Can I Use?

Use data/evidence that is relevant to your practice and your learning needs. You can choose to generate your own data within your practice or obtain data from many other sources, including but not limited to:

• Observation of one’s day-to-day practice, e.g., when is the third next available appointment (TNA) in your schedule, i.e., how long do patients wait for an appointment?
• Demographic data or service data from one’s billing programme, e.g., which patients have been billed using the diagnostic code “250” = identify diabetic patients in the practice and count how many have an up-to-date Diabetic Flowsheet.
• Clinical data extracted from one’s EMR (IT administrator or EMR vendors may be able to assist), e.g., how many patient records contain an email address in the appropriate field?

Primary Care Physicians may be able to request data from a number of sources:

• MyPractice: Primary Care Report from Ontario Health
• Screening Activity Report (SAR) from Cancer Care Ontario (CCO)
• Preventative Care Target Population Service Report from OHIP, available electronically via Medical Claims Electronic Data Transfer (MCEDT)
• Third-parties, such as FHO administrators, may generate data reports
• i4C Dashboard from OntarioMD
• Data to Decisions (D2D) from Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO)
• Physician Quality Improvement (PQI) Initiative
• Primary care Ontario Practice-based Learning and Research Network (POPLAR) — POPLAR securely collects and de-identifies electronic medical record (EMR) data to support practices in delivering optimal care across Ontario
• Community Initiatives Tool from the Alliance for Healthier Communities
• Business Intelligence and Reporting Tool (BIRT) from Alliance for Healthier Communities

A growing number of data sources are available for specialists:

• MyPractice Reports from Ontario Health

Clinical Practice Guidelines, Quality Standards & Recommendations can provide a basis for assessing practice performance and identifying opportunities for improvement:

• Health Quality Ontario Quality Standards (listed by topic)
• Royal College Core Curriculum & Competency Standards
• Clinical Practice Guidelines from specialty societies
• Choosing Wisely (INFO)
• Quality Improvement in Action resources from Health Quality Ontario

Additional Information about the My Practice Report from Ontario Health:
If you do not already have a MyPractice Report from Ontario Health, it may be a challenge to receive one before the completion date of the program. However, the report may provide valuable information for future quality improvement in your practice and you may find it beneficial to sign up for purposes beyond this program.