Family Medicine Quality Improvement Lead

Humber River Hospital. Lighting New Ways In Healthcare.

Humber River Hospital (HRH) is one of Canada’s largest acute care hospitals, fully digital, and serving a diverse catchment area of more than 850,000 people in the northwest Greater Toronto Area. HRH operates 722 acute inpatient beds with 3,400 staff, approximately 700 physicians, and over 1,000 volunteers. HRH currently includes the Wilson site, a 656-bed full service acute care facility that opened in 2015, and the Finch and Church sites, known as the "Reactivation Centres (RCC)". The RCCs represent a unique partnership among multiple hospitals in the GTA with a focus on high quality patient recovery as well as housing a community COVID-19 assessment centre. A 356-bed Long Term care facility “Humber Meadows” is currently under construction at the Finch Avenue site.

Our vision of Exceptional care, Healthier community and our focus on equity and inclusivity is something we share with our partners at the North Western Toronto Ontario Health Team. As Canada’s first digital hospital and home of the first Patient Care Digital Command Centre, a commitment to innovation, research, and academic excellence remains at the core of our organization. We look forward to further development of these core elements through our membership in the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network (TAHSN).

As an associate member of TAHSN, HRH provides many academic opportunities to all professions. We are committed to establishing a Family Medicine Teaching Unit in partnership with the University of Toronto within the year, further strengthening our commitment to academic excellence.

EXCELLENT CAREER OPPORTUNITY

Right now we are looking for a:

Quality Improvement Lead, Humber River Hospital

Position Summary

Reporting to the Chief of Family Medicine at Humber River Hospital (HRH), the HRH Family Medicine Quality Improvement Lead (QIL-HRH) play a dual role in leading improvement efforts and related teaching at their local site while working collaboratively with members of the Quality Program Committee to advance the teaching, practice, and evaluation of activities to improve quality of care across all core DFCM sites.

The teaching and practice of QI should be closely aligned at every site. For DFCM sites that are part of Family Health Team (FHT), the QI Program Director role should ideally be synonymous or closely aligned with the physician lead most responsible for supporting the FHT’s Quality Improvement Plan.

Efforts to improve quality should be embedded into the site’s leadership structure. The site QI Program Director should be a member of the site’s executive team and work closely with the site’s leadership team who have ultimate responsibility for site-level quality of care.

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Indigeneity, Accessibility and Fairness
Recognized by Forbes as one of Canada’s Best Employers for Diversity (2022), Humber River Hospital is committed to fostering a culture of equity and inclusion within the diverse community of North West Toronto and within our organization.

The Hospital is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous / Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ2S+ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.

The Hospital is committed to the principles of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). As such, we strive to make our recruitment, assessment and selection processes as accessible as possible and provide accommodations as required for applicants with disabilities.

Our search committee is committed to a fair process that will meaningfully reflect these commitments.

Interested Applicants

We encourage all qualified applicants to apply in confidence by forwarding a cover letter, curriculum vitae, an EDI statement*, and a brief statement outlining your vision for the role to:

Dr. Zaki Ahmed MD, FRCPC, FCCP, CCPE

MHSc (Health Admin)

Chief of Staff, Humber River Hospital

Dr. Art Kushner MD, MCFP (LM)

Chief, Department of Family and

Community Medicine, Humber River Hospital

Send via E-mail: [email protected]

Application Deadline: January 15, 2023

*Equity, diversity, inclusion, Indigeneity and accessibility (EDIIA) are important values at HRH & UofT. The search committee would appreciate a brief statement regarding your commitment as Director to the application of these principles. You may wish to mention relevant contributions to EDIIA in areas such as leadership, Quality Improvement, teaching, mentorship, scholarship and/or outreach.

The ideal candidate will:

  • Have certification with the College of Family Physicians of Canada and be eligible for faculty appointment at HRH and in the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the level of lecturer or higher.
  • Possess excellent leadership, communication, organizational and team building skills, a proven ability to lead and work well with others and a strong commitment to students and faculty. 
  • Demonstrate a proven ability to negotiate, mediate conflicts, advocate and resolve problems.
  • Be able to interpret and apply policy and procedure and ensure proper follow up and reporting to appropriate senior leadership.
  • Be aware of present and future health system trends/needs and possess knowledge of current best practices in family medicine QI.
  • Present a strong vision for the portfolio. 
  • Demonstrate interest in engaging in scholarly activities relating to family medicine QI.
  • Be willing to understand, adopt, and lead micro and macro system approaches to improving quality within their teaching unit and clinical practice.
  • Have relevant experience as both a clinician and an educator.
  • Demonstrate commitment to continuous learning.
  • Have lived experience with or knowledge of the North Western Toronto community.
  • Hold their clinical practice on premise at the family medicine teaching unit (FMTU) (HRH – Wilson site).
  • Hold or be eligible to hold privileges at Humber River Hospital  

Duties and Responsibilities will include:

  • Working closely with unit Chief and local Program Directors to:
  • Advance a culture and practice of quality improvement at their local site and influence organizational policies that impact quality of care
  • Lead local improvement initiatives through application of QI methods including rigorous measurement to understand if change is an improvement
  • Collaboratively advance the development, collection, and reporting of measures of quality locally and across the DFCM including those related to patient experience, health outcomes, equity, and provision of evidence-based care
  • Work together with the site Residency Program Coordinator to coordinate the delivery and supervision of the residency QI curriculum including in-class teaching and project practicum.
  • Work together with the site Professional Development representative to enhance knowledge and skills related to QI among local faculty including mentorship of junior faculty.
  • Work together with HRFHO IT lead to optimize the role of EMR in improving quality of care.
  • Work together with the site UTOPIAN Steering Advisory Committee representative as relevant enable alignment of QI research initiatives with DFCM/site QI priorities.
  • Support local patient engagement in organizational design and service delivery.
  • Represent their site at the DFCM Quality Program Committee (QPC) by attending monthly meetings and/or sending a delegate. QI Program Directors will facilitate dialogue between sites related to QI, disseminating knowledge gleaned from the meetings to their local sites and sharing local experience with other representatives at the meeting
  • Continuously advance their own professional development related to quality improvement in healthcare
  • Program reviews
    • Ensure there is continuous quality improvement of educational experiences to improve the Quality Improvement Program.
    • Ensure that competency outcomes are aligned with DFCM and national standards.
  • Accreditation: In addition to ongoing program reviews, as noted above, there are additional reviews for the purposes of accreditation.
    • Collaborate with the DFCM Quality Improvement Program Director and key faculty members to prepare requisite material for this purpose.
    • Participate in HRH and DFCM accreditation reviews.
  • Liaison
    • Acts as a liaison between the DFCM and HRH and effectively communicate pertinent information to the Hospital, Chief of Family Medicine and faculty.

Reporting

  1. Ensure proper follow-up and reporting by providing status reports to appropriate hospital leadership and DFCM Quality Improvement Program Director or his/her delegate regarding all program delivery requirements noted above, so that appropriate action can be taken.

Committees

  1. Member, HRH Site Quality Program Committee
  2. Member, DFCM Quality Program Committee meetings & subcommittees
  3. Member, HRH Education Committee

Professional Development

  1. Collaborate with the HRH Undergraduate and Postgraduate Program Directors to plan and facilitate appropriate QI opportunities for HRH faculty members.
  2. Attend professional development, including workshops targeted toward program directors by the CFPC or DFCM or other approved training providers.

Support

The duties and responsibilities of the Quality Improvement Lead will be carried out with administrative support from HRH and DFCM.

Appointment

  1. The position will be funded for approximately 1 half day per week.
  2. The QIL – HRH will be compensated by the Humber River Hospital Department of Family and Community Medicine.
  3. This is a five-year appointment. A review will be conducted after 2 years to ensure all parties are satisfied that the appropriate duties and responsibilities are being met, with the appropriate support. The appointment will be renewable once after a satisfactory term review.