Improving quality and performance in health services: Reflections from Cancer Care Ontario

Lecture starts 5:30 p.m.
Reception 6:30 p.m.

Design Exchange
234 Bay Street, 2nd Floor
Toronto, Ontario

Terrence Sullivan
Cancer Care Ontario

Initiatives to improve the quality of care in Ontario’s publicly funded health-care system are a prominent focus of current policy, with the introduction of the Excellent Care for All legislation. Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) commissions the full range of ambulatory cancer treatments along with surgical wait time reduction efforts. Within Ontario, CCO has been a leader in quality improvement initiatives in the past 10 years, using a number of strategies to continually improve the performance of cancer services. These include regularly reviewing the performance of each regional cancer centre and working with regional vice presidents and clinical leaders to address problems. These strategies also include the provincial-regional alignment of leadership objectives, provision of funding contingent upon results, and the reporting of results to cancer care providers and the public. From his perspective as the leader of a health-care commissioning agency with a core commitment to quality improvement, Dr. Sullivan will speak on lessons learned and possible considerations for the commissioning of health services more broadly.

About presenter

Terrence Sullivan is the CEO of Cancer Care Ontario and Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Dr. Sullivan was the founding president of the Institute for Work & Health.

About the Alf Nachemson Memorial Lecture

The annual Alf Nachemson Memorial Lecture honours the significant contribution of Dr. Alf Nachemson to the use of research evidence in clinical decision-making. Dr. Nachemson was a distinguished orthopaedic surgeon and researcher from Sweden, and a founding member of the Institute for Work & Health’s Scientific Advisory Committee.  The lectureship is awarded to a prominent national or international individual who has made a significant and unique contribution to evidence-based practice or policy-making in the prevention of work-related injury, illness or disability.