Blazing a trail of quality improvement
Wednesday January 23, 2008 -- Jason Thompson
To help healthcare organizations implement Safer Healthcare Now (SHN) campaign interventions, SHN’s Ontario Node is launching the 2007/2008 Ontario Trailblazers Program.

Trailblazers are a group of front-line clinical and quality improvement staff members aiming to support their organizations in implementing SHN interventions.

There are 15 new Trailblazers this year, in addition to five returning Trailblazers from last year’s program. Of the 20 organizations who sponsored Trailblazers, 13 are Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) subscribers.

“We’re hoping to get a snow-ball effect over time so we do actually increase a lot of improvement and patient safety capacity in the field,” says Clara Ballantine, a safety and improvement advisor with the Quality Healthcare Network (QHN).

Due to their experience, Ballantine says returning Trailblazers are valuable to the program because they continue the learning process and can also act as resources for rookie Trailblazers.

The program consists of a year-long learning opportunity aimed at helping Trailblazers expand their skills through a number of methods. Three live workshops have been scheduled in addition to a number of teleconference presentations and a Trailblazer listserv, which is described as an ongoing e-mail conversation for Trailblazer members only.

There are also roundup calls, which serve as a check-up to see how everyone is progressing with the program without a formal presentation.

Communities of practice, a web-based forum for healthcare professionals involved in implementing SHN interventions, have also been established for Trailblazer members only.

According to Ballantine, some of the characteristics embodied by Trailblazers include involvement on the front-lines of an organization, experience working as part of a team to implement special projects and a passion for making clinical improvements.

Because healthcare organizations are asked to sponsor their own Trailblazers, Ballantine says program outcomes are largely dependant on each organization’s priorities and what SHN intervention they’re currently implementing.

“It’s important that people know most of these Trailblazers take on this commitment in addition to their normal full-time job,” Ballantine says. “I admire them greatly for that. They’re amazing and they do amazing things.”

The following people have been selected as 2007/2008 Trailblazers:

Kerri Bennett
Grand River Hospital, Kitchener

Carlos Bautista
West Park Hospital, Toronto

Lynn Budgell
Halton Healthcare Services

Cheryl Chapman
Providence Continuing Care, Kingston

Lise Lallier
Sensenbrenner Hospital, Kapuskasing

Michele Temple
Lakeside Long Term Care Centre, Toronto

Annette Down
Lakeridge Health, Whitby

Jamie Kellar
Whitby Mental Health Centre, Whitby

Monica DiFonzo
Toronto Rehab Institute

Anne MacDonald
Queensway Carleton Hospital, Ottawa

Spencer Dickson
Bluewater Health, Chatham

Carole McBride
Ross Memorial Hospital, Lindsay

Lindsay McGee
Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, Stratford

Mary Neylon
Southlake Regional Hospital

Sharon Norton Robertson
Women’s College Hospital, Toronto

Erika Macphee
University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa

Dana Penfound
North Wellington Health Care, Mount Forest

Scott Pierotti
Niagara Health System

Julie Pike
Toronto East General Hospital, Toronto

Cheryl Owen
Rouge Valley Health System