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As 2022 comes to a close, we want to express our gratitude to partners like you who continue to respond to the evolving phases of the pandemic and strains facing health systems across the country.

According to data recently released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), during 1 in 17 hospital stays in Canada in 2021-22, people experienced unintended harm that evidence-informed approaches can help to prevent. That’s about 140,000 out of 2.4 million hospital stays.

Developing these frameworks is essential for good, shared decision-making among individual clinicians, their teams and their patients, and to help inform policy and regulatory progress.

Angel Arnaout is an independent researcher who participated in the Commonwealth Fund’s Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy and Practice Innovations. Although HEC supports the recruitment of fellows from Canada for this program, the views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the HEC’s views, or our funder, Health Canada.

Everyone wants and deserves safe care. Yet with health systems under strain, risks of unintended harm can grow. A focus on patient safety – which goes hand-in-hand with the safety of people working in healthcare – is more important than ever.

When this safe-to-say cultural shift happens, we can continue to improve and fine-tune our approach to creating safety, and learn and heal, together, when unintended harm does unfortunately occur.

Over the past several years, the pandemic has highlighted and deepened pre-existing gaps and inequalities in healthcare for people across Canada. For those in the healthcare workforce, the pandemic has been unrelenting. Yet people and systems have responded to pandemic challenges with tremendous innovation by focusing on workforce wellness, appropriate virtual care and patient safety during COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care.

Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and Healthcare Excellence Canada (HEC) are pleased to announce that a Clinician Change Virtual Care Toolkit (the Toolkit) is now available to support health care providers in their implementation and use of virtual care.

Learn how the Paramedics and Palliative Care program, brings vital in-home palliative care to people with cancer and other life-limiting conditions.