​Trillium Health Partners (THP) is the recipient of the 2017 Innovations in Patient Safety Education Award - Power of a System, recognizing its Quality Improvement module of the Medical Psychiatry Collaborative Care Certificate (MP3C).

Trillium Health Partners PSEP – Canada team

(Left to right) Back row:  Natasha Milijasevic, Dr. Alison Freeland and Cynthia Welton Front row: Dr. Amir Ginzburg, Alexandra Boasie, and Dean Henderson (Members of the MP3C team missing from the photo: David Wiljer, Sanjeev Sockalingam and Deepy Sur)

The MP3C is an education program emerging from the Medical Psychiatry Alliance (MPA), a collaborative partnership between Trillium Health Partners, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto. The MP3C certificate program is based on four foundational, continuing professional development modules, each with a focus on improving care and health outcomes for patients who suffer from physical and psychiatric illnesses. The four MP3C education modules currently include:

1. Bridging the Gap Between Mental and Physical Health;

2. Evidence and Models of Integrated Collaborative Care;

3. Patients and Families as Partners in Integrated Collaborative Care; and

4. Introduction to Quality Improvement: Application in an Integrated Mental & Physical Health Setting.

The learning objectives of the fourth module focus on healthcare quality at a systems level, use of quality improvement (QI) tools in physical and mental health care, and provide practical opportunities to understand and use QI measures. The Patient Safety Education Program – Canada (PSEP – Canada) curriculum was used as a foundational reference for this module, to provide learners with baseline knowledge about quality improvement models, the role of measurement, cause and effect diagrams, change concepts and Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles.

The MP3C Quality Improvement module builds upon patient safety principles in place at Trillium Health Partners, which are grounded from the foundation of PSEP – Canada. These principles focus on patient safety culture, patient safety incident management and disclosure, and quality improvement techniques. "Trillium Health Partners' senior leaders are extremely supportive of patient safety and quality improvement, and education initiatives like this are seen as drivers of continuous improvement within our health system," says Cynthia Welton, Manager Quality Operations and Patient Safety, Trillium Health Partners. "The MP3C Quality Module is fostering quality improvement by supporting staff in sustaining drive for excellence through small tests of change as well as major innovations."

The Introduction to Quality Improvement Module is 3.5 hours in duration, and to date has been delivered to over 75 interprofessional participants, including: nurses, physiotherapists, physicians, primary care, occupational therapists, social workers and administrators. The accredited session format encourages teams to think broadly about patient populations and embedding quality improvement in current and new work. The program has demonstrated the successful integration of QI techniques into an integrated collaborative care program for medical psychiatry, with participants reporting high levels of satisfaction and increased knowledge of these techniques. Future related modules will augment learning through the use of pre-work that participants will complete prior to attending the sessions, and/or development of an e-module or online delivery format. The QI principles and methods included in this module are applicable for any team in a variety of settings, including acute hospital-based care, primary care or community care settings.

For more information on the PSEP – Canada Innovations in Patient Safety Education Award, visit www.patientsafetyinstitute.ca