Releasing Time to Care© (RTC©) is a new initiative that St. Joseph's Health Centre is rolling out to all of our inpatient units over the coming months. You may have heard a little bit about this new program already because it’s currently in progress on our 4East unit.

So what is it? It's a program that was developed by the National Health Service Institute for Innovation and Improvement in England. It has been applied to large health care organizations in the UK and is being adopted in Australia and Saskatchewan. The program is a patient-centred approach to improving the quality of care on patient care units by helping to free up caregivers’ time for more direct patient care.

What's the goal of this program? It is a staff driven, leadership supported program that provides staff with the tools to identify and implement improvement ideas. It helps staff see their work environment with fresh eyes, to examine their day to day processes and strip out what does not add value. It also provides patient outcomes information, such as patient falls and hospital acquired infections, in real time right on the unit. Staff use this information to reflect on care processes and identify opportunities for improvement. In the end, the work environment and unit processes will be based on what staff need to be able to provide safe, effective patient care. Time saved by stripping out the things that do not add value is channeled back into direct patient care and care planning.

What does this mean for our patients? By providing patient outcomes information, eliminating unnecessary steps and waste from our processes, staff will be able to apply that additional time back into caring for our patients. St. Joseph's Health Centre is aiming to reduce adverse events (anything that may cause harm to the patient while receiving care here) by 50% by March 2011. RTC© is one initiative that will help us be successful at achieving our “Big Aim”.

How does it work? The program is built around 3 foundational and 8 process modules (see the diagram for a description of these).

Although RTC© was originally designed around nursing processes, all unit staff will be involved in the initiative at SJHC. Partner services such as facilities, dietary staff, pharmacy, and many others will also have an important role to play in implementing this initiative.

RTC© ultimately improves the overall quality of care for patients and improves work life for staff. The outcomes that have been realized in the UK are beginning to demonstrate safer and more reliable care - reductions in hospital acquired infections like C. Difficile, reductions in falls, appropriate reductions in length of stay and reductions in medication errors - as well as improvements in patient and staff satisfaction.

SJHC was one of four sites (Markham Stouffville Hospital, Trillium Health Centre and Bluewater Health) selected by the Centre for Health Quality Improvement (CHQI), which provided our improvement team with the training and tools to adopt this initiative, starting with 4 East.

We are committed to providing safe, quality care for our patients. To this end St. Joseph's Health Centre has identified reducing adverse events by 50% by March 2011 as its "Big Aim". RTC© is one of the initiatives that will support the Health Centre to achieve this aim as it rolls out to every unit across the Health Centre.

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Page last updated: April 30, 2010