HealthcarePapers
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An organization can drive quality only through its people. Too often, we relegate quality to a single department or a small group of evangelical leaders but fail to make it everyone's business. Accountability has become a buzzword, and we have translated it into huge agreements with myriads of measures and indicators, all purporting to have something to do with quality. ⋯ As I have said repeatedly, it is as simple as choosing a measure, planning to implement some changes and re-measuring to see if your changes have had any impact. You don't need a national council, or even a provincial one, to make quality happen in the day-to-day operations of every healthcare organization in the country. Rather, you just need to get started.
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Canada's health and social care system is paralyzed by our decentralized federalist governing structure. Public policy change, such as that suggested by Chappell and Hollander, will require a new political paradigm that recognizes the need for a multi-sectoral, co-operative approach to integrated systems of care delivery. The federal government must provide the necessary leadership, and the provinces and territories must show the political will to co-operate if Canada is to embrace the challenges of an aging population.
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This commentary provides perspectives from the nursing profession on the lead article that address professional and regulatory issues and shares insights derived from many years of leading quality enhancement initiatives at policy and clinical levels. The commentary calls attention to a number of successful national and provincial approaches founded on strong leadership, collaboration and consensus building. It also underscores the idea that professional organizations and individual health professionals are important drivers of quality initiatives at the point of care and when overseeing adherence to standards and successful program implementation.