Updates

Canadian Patient Safety Week (CPSW) comes once a year, each autumn, to help improve patient safety across the country. If you work in healthcare, though, you know lasting change is not something that can be accomplished in just a few days. It requires ongoing effort—not to mention effective communication and teamwork.

Healthcare Excellence Canada is collaborating with the CMA to support the recipients of the Health Care Unburdened Grant and their initiatives to reduce the administrative burden in health care.

Healthcare Excellence Canada and Canadian Partnership Against Cancer support communities across Canada to improve access to palliative care.

Have you ever asked yourself, “Why do we do things this way?” Last fall, in conjunction with Canadian Patient Safety Week, teams from the Health Workforce Innovation Challenge were invited to reflect on this question through the Dinosaur Mini-Challenge. By “digging for dinosaurs” around their work practices, teams identified and worked to re-examine practices that no longer promote safety.

Healthcare Excellence Canada has invited 26 organizations across Canada to participate in its Enabling Aging in Place collaborative from January 2024 to September 2025.

HEC announced the 20 teams invited to participate in our Strengthening Primary Care program. The program is designed to improve access to safe, including culturally safe, team-based primary care closer to home and meet the unique needs of northern, rural and remote communities.

Traditional palliative care models often overlook the unique needs and challenges of people experiencing homelessness or vulnerable housing, including needs like income security, food and more personalized, compassionate care. The Improving Equity in Access to Palliative Care collaborative brings communities from coast to coast to design and implement innovative models that improve access to care.

As part of this year’s Canadian Patient Safety Week (CPSW), our annual campaign to inspire improvements in healthcare safety and quality across Canada, HEC’s President and CEO Jennifer Zelmer hosted an exclusive fireside chat for CPSW registrants.

Data from the Canadian Institute of Health Information show that one in 17 hospital stays in Canada in 2022-23 resulted in unintended harm that might have been prevented through evidence-informed practices. That’s about six per one hundred acute-care admissions, up from rates of 5.3 to 5.4 before the pandemic began.