Quality once again the major focus in 2012: McCarthy

Council, Five Whys tool, major factors in driving quality forward

January 4, 2012 -- Deron Hamel

OMNI Health Care president and CEO Patrick McCarthy says building upon last year's quality improvement initiatives will be the organization's major focus in 2012.

Taking centre stage in 2012 is OMNI's Quality Council, which was formed in late 2011. The council, which consists of team members from each of the organization's 17 long-term care homes as well as home office staff, will be charged with rolling out initiatives and driving them forward, says McCarthy.

McCarthy says he has seen strong results from the council in the past few months, and hopes to see this trend continue in 2012.

One of the ways the OMNI Quality Council, which is meeting quarterly, is planning to enhance quality throughout the organization is by utilizing tools available through the province's quality-driven Residents First initiative.

One of the Residents First tools the council is working on is the Five Whys. This is a brainstorming tool aimed at helping long-term care home quality improvement teams discover the root causes of challenges by asking questions related to the problem.

Five Whys has been a useful tool council members have brought back to their homes, McCarthy notes.

The Five Whys tool begins by asking a question, and then asks more questions based upon the answers to discover why a resident, for example, might not be eating.

McCarthy says the Five Whys tool has helped staff members discover why residents don't want to eat, allowing them to create interventions that get to the root cause of the problem.

"By the time you've peeled back the layers you can find an underlying reason that's the driver, rather than the symptom," McCarthy tells the OMNIway. "We deal with the driver."

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If you have any feedback on this story, please contact the newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.






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