Qualitycast North

In this gem of an interview, we chat with Christina Krause, the CEO of Health Quality BC about a whole range of topics around patient safety from the role of Provincial quality and safety organizations and the new BC Patient Safety Strategy to what’s changed in our understanding of safer patient care. Through personal stories and experiences, Christina shares valuable insights into safer care through listening to patients’ and families, the importance of psychological safety, and why everyone should just take just a little more time to understand one another’s viewpoints. Listen and let Christina’s infectious enthusia...

In this episode we feature another award-winning, quality improvement project this time based in Victoria, Vancouver Island. Our guests are Alanna Summers, Program Manager and a registered psychiatric nurse, Jennifer Sandburg, Team Lead occupational therapist, and Jane Dolan, MHSU Clinical recreational therapist, from the South Island Mental Health and Substance Use team. Starting with the gap in care they first identified, they take us through how they developed their cost effective and successful Bridging Care program for patients in mental health crisis. This program not only provides effective, patient-centered care but has also reduced hospital admissions and inpatient length...

In this episode, we head upstream in our health system with this podcast’s first ever guests from the public health sector. Northern Health’s Medical Health Officer Dr. Diana Bark and Director of Public Health Lara Frederick take us through their QI work identifying, analyzing, and addressing a gap in dental health screening and dental caries prevention in pre-kindergarten age children in Northeast BC. We learn how QI methodology can be applied to complex problems in public health and how, through enhanced community engagement, their team provided valuable, preventative, dental care and improved health equity at the same time.<...

Visiting specialist clinics are a lifeline for patients with chronic disease in rural and remote communities across the North. They save patients travel time and costs and also provide care in context of their own local communities and available supports. But patient non-attendance at these clinics can negatively impact the quality of their longitudinal care leading to increased morbidity. In this episode, Dr. Angela How takes us through her quality improvement work based at her rural visiting specialist rheumatology clinic in Hazelton improving patient attendance through a culturally safe approach incorporating motivational interviewing techniques. At the same time, we hear...

Our topic in this episode is the power and potential of good data for improving patient care. In a broad ranging interview with our guests Dr. Cole Stanley and Gayle Grout from Health Data Coalition (HDC), we hear about the origins and goals of HDC and how the aggregation of primary care electronic medical record data can provide Primary Care providers reassurance and drive improvements in care. We talk about the importance of feedback loops, the benefits and dangers of comparison and how such data can support a whole system quality approach. HDC is a great example of a how...

As season 4 comes to and end and we enter our 5th year of the podcast with season 5, Shyr and Lee reflect on their favourite highlights from last season. With twice as many episodes as previous seasons, there was a lot to choose from and of course all our guests left an indelible impression. What can we look forward to in the season ahead? More great Quality Improvement projects, high profile guests and maybe even one or two surprises. Don’t want to miss an episode? Subscribe to our channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. <br

From a healthcare quality perspective, you can’t get much better than the Mayo Clinic. Its global reputation for high quality patient care is unsurpassed. But what exactly makes the Mayo Clinic so good and what can other institutions learn from how the Mayo Clinic does business? To find out, the Doctors of BC recently arranged for a group of British Columbian physicians to visit the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, to hear, see and experience how they deliver care. To talk about their learnings and key takeaways from that trip are today’s guests, Dr. Kalah Blackstock a family physician in S...

Residents in British Columbia are no strangers to wildfires which have increased in number and ferocity over recent years. But when an out-of-control wildfire threatens a town, its residents and its healthcare facilities, it rapidly turns into a nightmare come true. The sudden need for healthcare facility evacuation is a recipe for potential chaos and confusion and poses increased risks for patients and care home residents. To talk about their amazing and award-winning Quality Improvement work in reducing the risks of emergency healthcare facility evacuation are today’s guests from Health Emergency Management BC (HEM BC) Gloria Hertz and John Co...

This week we’re returning to Northern Health’s C-Suite and interview Nicole Cross, Northern Health’s Vice President of Indigenous Health and Chief Planning and Quality Officer. In this treat of an episode, we cover a wide range of topics including her career journey from entry-level Indigenous Patient Liaison to the Northern Health’s Executive C-suite. Nicole explains her vision for engaging patients and communities in their own care and care system; how openness and transparency is the key to how the system learns and why quality should be embedded and not optional in our healthcare system, before finishing with a h...

When those in short term police custody need acute medical care, getting them that care presents logistic problems often resulting in time consuming and labor-intensive visits to the local hospital emergency department with police escorts. This week’s guest is Dr. Michelle Brousson, a family physician in North Vancouver, who talks to us about her innovative solution for this complex problem providing the care these patients need without having to leave the police station, providing a win-win solution for everyone involved. During this episode Dr. Brousson provides us with a project masterclass on engaging and listening to stakeholders and delivering ed...

Taking on your first leadership role as a physician can be a daunting prospect. New physician leaders can feel ill-prepared and ill-equipped when thrust into these positions. But it turns out training and experience in Quality Improvement can help prepare new physician leaders as many of QI skills translate directly into leadership. Our guest today is Dr. Gurpreet Narang, a radiologist based at the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia in Prince George who busts some of the myths surrounding physician leadership and tells us how to avoid that “deer in the headlights” moment commonly encountered by newbie physician leaders in t...

Returning to the podcast is everyone’s favourite physician QI coach and social media maven Dr. Lawrence Yang. He’s a family doc, physician wellness advocate and QI coach but is probably most well well-known for his social media presence and legions of posted selfies with fellow Quality Improvers. In this interview we go deep as Lawrence explains the importance of connection and mutual support within the QI community as well as his own personal motivation behind his networking superpower. We also talk about self-compassion, the dangers of working in silos, generational attitudes to work and identifying as ‘whole people’. ...

It’s a problem which we read and hear about in the media on an all too regular basis. But violence and mental health is not only a problem on our city streets, it’s also an issue in our hospitals. This week’s guest is Northern psychiatrist Dr. Barb Kane. In this episode we talk about why violence and mental health is such a big problem, how it came about and her proposed Northern solution. Links: Read about and sign the petition at change.org

Patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) are some of the heaviest users of western healthcare resources and particularly emergency departments. Effective treatments for alcohol use disorder have recently become available but only a very small proportion of eligible AUD receive treatment. To talk about their excellent quality improvement work in identifying eligible AUD patients and directing them towards appropriate care from the emergency department, are our two guests today, Dr. Aron Zuidhof, Medical Director for Emergency Services in Interior Health and Dorrie Fasick, Transformational Lead for the Interior Health Emergency Services Network. They talk us through the groundbreaking, wrap-around, care-pathway...

British Columbia’s Physician Quality Improvement (PQI) program celebrates its 8th birthday this year. Since inception, this program has produced amazing improvement work some of which we’ve showcased on this podcast. PQI has also generated a culture shift towards quality amongst the physician community throughout the province. Our special guest today is Dr. Curt Smecher, aka “Papa QI”, the person responsible for PQIs original vision and first training cohort. In this episode, we talk to Curt about PQI’s humble beginnings, the progress and impact of the program to date and its exciting next phase. We also hear how redefining...

In this special “mic swap” episode, Lee Cameron and guest co-host Dr. Gurpreet Narang turn the tables on our regular co-host Shyr Chui to ask him about his journey into QI, some of his current projects and memorable highlights from over 20 years of QI work. Amongst other things, we touch on Whole System Quality, building strong QI teams, artificial intelligence and what gets him out of bed every morning. Links: IHI White paper on Whole System Quality (Juran’s Quality Trilogy) Qualitystream North

Today’s guest is a giant and well-respected figure in British Columbian Emergency Medicine. In addition to his many research and quality improvement projects, Dr. Jim Christenson helped create the British Columbia Emergency Medicine Network improving the quality of emergency care across the province. But far from slowing down in retirement, he’s continued pioneering work, turning his attention to the rural, indigenous communities on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In this insightful and moving interview Dr. Christenson talks about the current state of healthcare in these remote communities, the challenges of addressing inequity, his personal motivation for this work...

In the second part of our interview with Northern Rural Family Physician, Dr. Ray Markham, we discuss some of his leadership work supporting rural communities across the province through the Rural Coordination Centre of BC. We discuss how to build a provincial support network and how the constraints of geography and remoteness can be turned to advantage by fueling innovation to improve care “at the edge”. Links: Partnership Pentagram RCCbc

Each year, the Institute of Healthcare Improvement holds its annual forum in December. Over 4 days, between 3 to 4 thousand healthcare quality improvers from across the world join together for a packed program of workshops, QI project reports, improvement science education and keynote lectures from renown speakers. This year, a large contingent of Canadians made the trip including some from Northern British Columbia so we decided to bring these Northern Physicians together for a fun panel discussion about their experiences and what they learned from this year’s forum. This is the recording of that discussion moderated by our regular Qualitycast North ho...

If you’re ever tempted to think medicine is practised the same everywhere in British Columbia, think again. Small rural communities present specific challenges to healthcare delivery due to their size and location, no more so than in the North where we also have long, snowy winters to contend with. That’s not to say that rural care can’t be high quality care. Providing valuable insights into rural family practice is today’s guest Dr. Ray Markham. This interview was so good we split it into two separate episodes. In this first part, Ray talks about his rural, generalist practice...