Quality
Quality
Quality Patient Safety
Since 2011, the Quality & Patient Safety (QPS) Committee for the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine (DAPM) at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) remains active on many fronts. Our multidisciplinary Committee includes representation from anesthesiology staff physicians, residents, Anesthesia Assistants, OR/PACU/PAU nurse educators and managers, Pharmacy, and Patient Relations. Historically, we would meet 10 times throughout each academic year. Over the last 12 years, the QPS Committee missed only three scheduled meetings (April to June 2020) during the early months of the pandemic.
Review of Safety Learning System (SLS) reports with an emphasis to identify system-level opportunities for improvement is a central focus of the QPS Committee. From 2021-23, the Committee reviewed over 250 SLS reports originating across a wide range of TOH care environments. The list of SLS-initiated projects and clinical care environment changes arising from the Committee’s work continues to grow thanks to dedicated QPS Committee members and colleagues within the department and beyond who have taken the time to complete a SLS report. Perioperative support, medication issues, and equipment account for the top 3 clusters of SLS reports reviewed by the QPS Committee. Several DAPM colleagues have volunteered to be SLS Reviewers for the QPS Committee between 2021-23 including: Drs. T. Crosby, C. Smyth, C. Gallant, C. Gomez, D. Aboutouk, A. Mir Ghassemi, A. Lui, M. Stalder, J. McVicar, and S. Gagne.
The SLS events reviewed by the Committee are considered for QPS Rounds (formerly known as Morbidity & Mortality Rounds). This allows DAPM members to explore system/cognitive issues that may contribute to certain adverse events and discuss possible opportunities for improvement. QPS Rounds, presented five times per year, provide a popular and insightful educational venue that generates dynamic discussion for sharing our experiences and improving patient care practices.
Since 2013, the QPS Committee has reviewed department-level performance data (obtained through production of the annual physician report presented to staff anesthesiologists at TOH) on a range of structure, process, and outcome variables relevant to perioperative clinical care. In 2022, the annual report added further detail of airway management practices at TOH. Specifically, videolaryngoscopy for endotracheal tube placement increased over 35% from 2020 to 2023. Review of such data has been helpful to advocate for more airway equipment resources to be available for care of DAPM patients.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the QPS Committee,
Chris Pysyk, MD, FRCPC
Chair, Quality and Patient Safety Committee
Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital
Staff Anesthesiologist, The Ottawa Hospital
Assistant Professor, University of Ottawa
Mentorship Program
Dylan Bould took over the role of Director of the Junior Faculty Mentorship Program in February 2021. Many thanks to Don Miller for his service as the inaugural director of this program!
For those who are unfamiliar with this program, junior faculty members (in their first 3 years) are provided support in developing a detailed academic plan, and executing this plan in the early-career phase, through regular meetings with a named faculty mentor and with a faculty advisor (usually the Mentorship Program Director). Although a University of Ottawa Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine (DAPM) initiative, until 2021 this program had only included junior faculty at the Ottawa Hospital. A change to the program is as of 2021 the mentorship program has been open to new hires at CHEO, and as of this year new hires from the Heart Institute will also be included. Support in developing an academic plan is also available to DAPM residents who are planning to apply for staff jobs in the department.
There have been 7 “graduates” from the mentorship program since 2021. These department members have made huge contributions to the DAPM in their early-career phase. In addition to many publications, grants, invited talks (listed elsewhere), higher degrees obtained and courses completed, these achievements include (but are not limited to) developing a transitional pain program and being director of acute pain at TOH (Dr Tierney); leading the residency mentorship program and being the pain medicine residency program director (Dr Alisic); being the anesthesia residency program director (Dr Mir Ghassemi); winning the DAPM mentorship award and developing POCUS (Dr McFaul); developing a POCUS training program for both residents and faculty (Dr Miller); co-leading the LUCAS conference (Dr Robert). There are currently 23 individuals in the Junior Mentorship Program – including some new hires who have yet to start as staff. We may be reaching out to you for your support as mentors for them. It’s exciting to see the ambitious academic plans of the new additions to DAPM, who are surely the future of our department!
The DAPM strongly believes in the value of mentorship, as part of lifelong learning and faculty development. A CPD accredited workshop on mentorship for DAPM was held in 2021 by Dr Paul Hendry, Vice-Dean, Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Further workshops can be scheduled if there is sufficient interest from our department. Any faculty who are interested in becoming a mentor for junior faculty in this program should contact Dylan at [email protected]
