128 Business View - May 2015
issue of financial and human resources. These chal-
lenges are universal across our country and around
the world. We have to ensure that the provision of care
is at the quality standard it should be based on evi-
dence, while also making the best use of the dollar.
It is important to decrease variation in practice, and
use evidence and research to support the develop-
ment of standards that require specific processes and
procedures that lead to better outcomes and lower
costs. At Accreditation Canada, we highlight our Lead-
ing Practices, innovative practices from across the
country that improve service delivery and can often be
implemented with minimal cost. We serve as a con-
duit for knowledge transfer, using the online database
available on our website to enable the spread of these
leading practices.
BUSINESS VIEW: As you look at the overall organiza-
tion, how engaged of a group is it and what means
do you use to go out and inform everybody or to get
everyone called to action? Is it events? Is it publica-
tions? Or is it something else that’s proved success-
ful?
NICKLIN:
For every organization that participates in
our program, we assign an accreditation specialist to
liaise with them. We establish an ongoing relationship
with all of our client organizations.
We’re also invited to participate at many conferences
– whether the topic is infection prevention and control,
governance, emergency care or others – and we can
contribute our collective experience; what our results
show. We offer our own Quality Conference every year,
which brings together people from across the country
to learn and share quality improvement initiatives and
receive updates about our program. Sharing knowl-
edge and experience is very important.
We have about 500 volunteer surveyors who partici-
pate in our program. These senior health care leaders
are our champions, serving as the face of Accredita-
tion Canada with client organizations. We take steps to
ensure that the surveyors are current on our program
updates. Beyond the contribution they make as a vol-
unteer, the return benefit for them is that they can take
this knowledge back to their organizations.
We have many advisory committees – we do noth-
ing alone. We rely on our content experts to help
us develop and enhance the standards. When it’s
time to upgrade our Aboriginal health standards for
instance, we have an advisory committee comprised
of members from First Nations communities, who are
knowledgeable about the current issues in Aboriginal
care delivery. In a similar way, we have advisory com-
mittees on infection prevention and control, which
includes experts from across Canada, on emergency
care, on home care. We have close to 40-50 advisory
committees with anywhere from 10-20 members. They
are extremely generous in sharing their knowledge
with us and getting our message out to their respec-
HEALTHCARE
