The Canadian Institute for Health Information provides Fairfield Park with quarterly indicators that are specific to the long term care sector and allow us to benchmark and monitor our performance against other homes, as well as the province. These indicators, as well as internal monitoring records and our resident/family surveys, are what we use to help us identify our priority areas.
We are currently in the process of establishing a quality improvement committee which will be led by Stephanie North, our Administrator and composed of a member of our Resident Council, a member of our Family Council (if applicable), our Director of Care/Nursing, our Medical Director, each Designated Lead of our Home, our Registered Dietitian, our Consulting Pharmacist, a regular Nursing Staff of the home, and a PSW of the home.
Our priority areas for the current fiscal year include:
- Unnecessary visits to the emergency department – This is a priority area that has been identified in our community and we are working with our healthcare partners to achieve this. Our goal is to maintain our performance, which has been better than the provincial average, by the end of the fiscal year.
- Resident/Family Satisfaction – We recently updated our resident/family satisfaction survey to include the following question/statements: “What number would you use to rate how well the staff listen to you” and “I can express my opinion without fear of consequences” and are working towards gathering data to develop a benchmark.
- Antipsychotic Medications for Residents without a Diagnosis of Psychosis – Reducing antipsychotic medications is a priority area that has been identified provincially. As such, we have identified it as a priority as well. Our performance is in line with the province; however we are working diligently to increase the assessments our clinical staff can be using to help make decisions about these matters.
As we complete the action items identified in our quality report, status updates will be provided on a quarterly basis to the Quality Improvement Committee. Final outcomes will be detailed in the quality report at the end of each fiscal year.”