SLMHC Surgical Process Quality Improvement

Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) has initiated a quality improvement initiative to understand and improve access to surgical services for northern patients. This page is shared at the request of Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, to share ideas across the system about how to improve the existing process.

Doleweerd Consulting, experts in health system access and transition processes, were enlisted to guide the investigation phase of this journey.

The process was triggered to try and solve a series of challenges related to accessing surgery for people living in the 28 northern First Nation communities. One of the key issues is an excessive number of surgical cancellations.

This process spanned multiple organizations including: Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, Non-Insured Health Benefits, Jeremiah McKay Kabayshewekamik Hostel, Wasaya Air, Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority Primary Health Care Unit, Band Council Travel/Health Staff, Sioux Lookout Zone Nursing Office of First Nation and Inuit Health, Health Canada, Ontario Telemedicine, KO Telemedicine.

The first step towards improvement was to develop a thorough understanding of the current process. This was done by going and observing the work where it was done. Through observation, process maps of the entire process were created. These process maps were shared in a session on Nov. 23 at SLMHC, where all participants in the process were invited to learn about the process, and generate change ideas for the future.

High Level Process Map

At a high level, the process for providing surgery at SLMHC to northern patients (e.g., Laparoscopic cholecystectomy) follows the path in the diagram below:


Detailed Value Stream Maps

A Value Stream map provides in-depth details about each step in the process.
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Video Overview

The following videos provide an introductory walkthough of the surgical and telemedicine processes, highlighting key steps in the process.

VIDEO Overview - Surgery Process (13 min)
to download a copy click here


VIDEO Overview - Telemedicne Process (9 min)
to download a copy click here

 

Report Out Files

These presentations were used at the workshop with all of the attending process stakeholders. They contain a client value statement, statistics, key issues, and change ideas for the future.


This page is shared at the request of Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, to share ideas about how to improve the existing process. This page and its contents are not indexed by search engines such as Google or Bing.