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Between May 2008 and May 2010, QIIP has organized three Learning Collaboratives for Family Health Teams, Community Health Centres and shared-care model practices in Ontario. The first Collaborative began on May 26th 2008. The second started in November 2008 and the third began in March 2009. Each runs for 14-15 months and addresses the same three topics:
- improving care for individuals with diabetes
- improving screening for colorectal cancer, and
- improving access and office efficiency
For more insight into the effectiveness of the collaboratives, read the following feature article published in the April 17th, 2009 OHPE bulletin.
The Charter outlines the goals of the Learning Collaborative, the targets, and the expectations of participants. The measures to be used can be viewed here.
Each participating organization will establish a Quality Improvement (lead) Team. This team takes part in the Collaborative and oversees the implementation of improvements and innovations within the organization. Quality Improvement Teams (QITs) consist of a physician, an administrator or business manager, a nurse or nurse practitioner, another health professional, and an administrative staff member.
One of the priorities for a QIT is to help spread strategies and concepts developed in the learning sessions to the rest of the organization (including team members who were unable to attend the learning session). Part of the work on the Collaborative is to look at how best this can be achieved.
All participating teams work on Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) cycles in between learning sessions. They report their progress as well as their targets and defined measures with their PDSAs on a monthly basis for the Collaborative. A virtual office helps with this, and all Collaboratives have a charter that outlines their goals and methods.
QIIP has Quality Improvement Coaches to assist practices with their improvement work.
We are pleased to include a number of Community Health Centres in the first learning collaborative, and look forward to CHCs joining future QIIP learning collaboratives. The links between CHCs and FHTs are important and the experience in different models will enrich the learning that takes place. | 
