improving
improving
Dr . Natasha Graham , a family physician , Mr . John Langs , a public member , and Dr . Jim Watters , a general surgeon , sit on the College ’ s Quality Assurance Committee .
Assessing Our Assessment Process
As our peer assessment outcomes show , most physicians randomly chosen for a peer assessment perform well . For that smaller group of physicians who don ’ t receive satisfactory outcomes in their assessments , there are well-established processes in place to identify practice deficiencies and provide remediation .
But over the last few years , we have been looking for ways to make the assessment more useful for the vast majority of physicians who are already practising good medicine . How can the physician emerge from the process with new tools and insights to deliver even higher quality care ? So , we have been assessing our assessment process . The first step has been making our many peer assessors central to the process of redesign . Currently , we have physicians representing 14 discipline groups who are engaged in creating new assessment processes , tools and reporting formats , including developing discipline-specific quality indicators . Our assessors are developing and refining peer assessment handbooks ; each handbook is discipline-specific and includes content tailored to the discipline . The handbooks define elements of quality and evaluation criteria for each of eight assessment domains , i . e ., history , examination , investigation , diagnosis , management plan , medication , follow-up and monitoring , and documentation for continuity of care . Eventually , we will have tailored tools to apply to every clinical area of medicine that we assess .
By sharing their collective expertise and experience , our peer assessors are helping create assessment tools tailored to their respective discipline that establish a consistent , high bar of quality that exemplifies best practices . While not intended to replace other standards of care within their discipline , defining photo : D . W . Dorken
14 COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF ONTARIO