Award honours individuals and teams who deliver the safest and highest quality systems, experiences, and care at UHN
The Quality Improvement Review Committee (QIRC) led by KITE Senior Scientists Drs. Catriona Steele and Paul Oh received UHN’s 2023 Local Impact Award for Quality and Safety.
This award recognizes individuals and teams who support the mission of designing and delivering the safest and highest quality systems, experiences, and care.
The QIRC reviews quality improvement initiatives at UHN.
“We’re very pleased to receive this award because it speaks to the importance of having an oversight mechanism for quality improvement,” said Dr. Steele, who is the QIRC chair, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Swallowing and Food Oral Processing, and Professor of Speech-Language Pathology in the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto.
“All of the credit for this award goes to our QIRC specialists Betty Chau and Sarah Brown who do the bulk of the heavy lifting on this team.”
The QIRC team was nominated by UHN Executive Vice President of Education and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian Hodges in recognition of its efficiency in reviewing and approving quality improvement projects.
Since its inception in 2020, the QIRC has processed over 700 projects; developed a quality improvement project repository for TeamUHN to connect and collaborate on quality improvement; and delivered grand rounds and other presentations to key stakeholders.
Mount Sinai Hospital and St. Michael’s Hospital have expressed interest in replicating the QIRC model for their organizations Dr. Steele said.
“I never could have imagined when the QIRC started it would be successful enough to influence other hospitals’ approach to quality improvement initiatives,” said Dr. Steele.