For Immediate Release
April 1, 2011

A Commitment to Excellence in Patient Care

Improvement plan focuses on safety, wait times and quality service
 
(Windsor, ON) Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital is proud to release its Quality Improvement Plan for the 2011-12 fiscal year, a plan which sets out ambitious goals to improve upon the excellent care provided to our patients and families each and every day.

Under the province’s Excellent Care for All Act, all Ontario hospitals are required to submit targets for performance improvement. While some targets are mandatory across the province, HDGH has chosen several additional performance goals which we believe would make important and significant impacts for staff and for patients.

“The Quality Improvement Plan is an excellent vehicle for staff to use to focus their improvement efforts, and to demonstrate to the public our commitment to further improving our already excellent level of care and service,” said Patricia Somers, senior vice-president of patient services. “HDGH has always set priority goals for improvement and the Quality Improvement Plan is an opportunity to further define our targets and publicly demonstrate our results in a transparent, accountable manner.”
Based on February 2011 data, HDGH is already outperforming various organizational targets specific to surgical wait times for hips, knees, cataracts and cancer, as well wait times for CT scans and hand hygiene compliance. As always, HDGH looks to continually expand on our performance results.

HDGH priorities set out in the 2011-12 Quality Improvement Plan include:
Increase hand hygiene compliance before initial patient contact to 93% from 80.32% in 2009-10.
  • Reduce the rate of central line blood stream infections by 32%.
  • Reduce the rate of hospital acquired infections (including MRSA, VRE, C-Difficile) by 10%.
  • Improve the total length of stay from the time of registration to the time the patient leaves the ER for an in-patient bed by 5.5 hours, in 90% of cases.
  • Reduce the number of elective surgical cancellations due to unavailability of an ICU or in-patient bed by 57%.

To view the HDGH Quality Improvement Plan, click here.

Updates on these and other objectives will be published in the HDGH Quarterly Patient Safety Monitor, analyzed by our Quality Committee, and reviewed by the HDGH advisory board.

Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital is the premier tertiary acute care hospital for the Windsor-Essex region. The hospital provides advanced care in such areas as complex trauma, renal dialysis, cardiac care, stroke and neurosurgery, acute mental health and a broad range of medical and surgical services required to support these specialized areas.
 
-30-

Contact:
Steve Erwin, Director of Communications
(519) 973-4433