Over the past two years, the South West Regional Cancer Program has worked collaboratively with physicians and hospital leaders from across ther region (28 hospital sites) to evaluate and improve the delivery of outpatient endoscopy services and follow up care across the region. The goal was to decrease the variation of wait times and volumes, and implement best practices in the GI Endoscopy services delivered in the South West LHIN by 2016. The outcome of this work will ensure that patients receive the same quality of endoscopy care at the right time, regardless of where they live.
A recommendation and implementation plan was developed to ensure:
- endoscopy service delivery is aligned with quality best practice,
- streamlined quality measurement and improvement, and
- on-going program governance and reporting.
Click here to view the full final report.
Please note: All sites that were providing endoscopy services in the region will continue to do so. There will be no realignment of services as a result of this work.
The recommendations have been categorized into four implementation plan work streams:
- Patient safety compliance and key performance indicator (KPI) implementation
- Data provision, analysis, and report generation
- Program accountability and quality improvement
- Patient flow and system optimization
South West EQUIP
As of April 1, 2015, the South West Regional Cancer Program, together with Cancer Care Ontario, began to manage the implementation of the recommendations under the guidance of a committee - South West Endoscopy Quality Improvement and Performance (SW-EQUIP). These changes will ensure that best clinical practice in endoscopy services is applied throughout the South West LHIN. The South West Endoscopy Quality Improvement and Performance (SW-EQUIP) committee is working collaboratively with outpatient GI endoscopy providers and facilities in the region to ensure they are aligned to provide the highest quality of outpatient GI endoscopy care for South West patients. Click here to view a list of individuals who are participating on one of the project implementation work streams - Data, Finance, Operations.
Meeting Briefs
Meeting Brief no. 1 - September 2015
Meeting Brief no. 2 - December 2015
Meeting Brief no. 3 - March 2016
Meeting Brief no. 4 - June 2016
Meeting Brief no. 5 - September 2016
Referral Forms
Click here to view the following referral forms and guidelines:
- Colorectal referral guidelines
- Colorectal Diagnostic Assessment Program (DAP) referral form
- Regional colonoscopy referral forms