Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Leadership Program

About the Program

The Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Leadership Program creates and supports health-care champions in the field of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety who can help to lead and facilitate change and improvements within their practice, their department, their hospitals, and across the entire health system. The program will be offered for the fourteenth time starting October 2024.

Download a detailed program prospectus, including program history, evaluation results, and more: 

Download Information Package

Download the FAQ document for additional questions below: 

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¹Hamilton S, Jennings A, Forster AJ. Development and evaluation of a quality improvement framework for healthcare. International Journal for Quality in Health Care July 2020​

Who Should Attend?

This program is designed for individuals in healthcare organizations who have an interest in improving quality and patient safety. It is not necessary for participants to hold (or aspire to hold) formal leadership positions within the health system. It is an ideal program for organizational dyads (i.e. physician and administrator) to participate together.

To date, participants have included representatives from hospitals and healthcare organizations mainly within the Champlain region and also reaching across Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.

Program Requirement

Participants must undertake a quality improvement & patient safety project within their organization or department as part of this program. The project should have a duration that spans at least the length of the program. It may be a project that a participant is currently leading or one that they will initiate during the program. It is important that the participant has ownership and accountability for the project.

The content of the program will be geared toward the planning and execution of the quality improvement & patient safety project. Throughout the program sessions, there will be time devoted to project work in Project Learning Groups to enable participants to learn through facilitated discussions with peers. These sessions, along with the program content, will provide participants with the tools necessary to move their projects forward. Sessions will focus on corporate objectives within hospitals and the region, resources and best practices in performance management and business processes, project management, change management, leadership styles and team leadership. Participants will also learn each step of the TOH Innovation Framework as the program progresses, applying learning throughout the program to advancing their project.

The program concludes with a Poster Presentation Day in which participants are required to formally present their project and its results. In certain cases, projects may not be fully implemented by this date, however, evidence of sufficient progress remains a requirement for presentation. Guests invited to Poster Presentation Day include hospital CEOs and executives, medical department heads, senior management, program alumni and other healthcare professionals with an interest in quality and patient safety.

What You Will Learn

Through the process of developing and implementing a Patient Safety and Quality project, participants will also develop the following broad competencies and knowledge areas:

• Healthcare: Comprehend the scope of the healthcare system from an administration and quality and safety perspective
• Quality and Patient Safety: Understand and apply practical methods and tools for advancing quality improvement, alongside an overview of patient safety fundamentals. 
• Leadership: Recognize and work with different styles of leadership, using awareness of one's own style to exercise influence and decision-making
• Change: Appreciating the dynamics of change and learning how to communicate and lead change effectively, especially when working with other stakeholders in the health-care system

Program Takeaways

1. A basic understanding of concepts and methods underlying quality improvement efforts
2. A network of colleagues and peers responsible for improving quality within the health-care system
3. Development and implementation of a quality improvement initiative

Program Facilitators

Samantha Hamilton

Program Director

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Samantha Hamilton

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Program Director

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Samantha Hamilton is a senior quality, patient safety and risk management professional with over 25 years of experience in a variety of health sectors. She has worked within the pharmaceutical, medical device, biologics, diagnostics, blood, long-term care, home care and acute care (hospital) sectors. She holds an undergraduate degree in Biology (Microbiology specialization), a Master’s degree in Health Administration and a Master's certificate in Risk Management. She holds a CPHQ designation and is trained as a Lean six sigma black belt. Samantha is experienced in quality management systems design, quality and patient safety risk management processes, and a variety of quality improvement tools and techniques. She has presented at provincial and national conferences and has served on community health service boards and participated in provincial committees.  

Samantha is the founder of The Ottawa Hospital Innovation Framework for Healthcare Quality Improvement and primary author in the publication of the Innovation Framework for healthcare quality improvement - the foundational method taught in the Telfer Quality Improvement & Patient Safety Leadership Program that has also been adopted by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is also a faculty member with CHA Learning, teaches in the Telfer Executive Master of Health Administration, and is Program Director and lead facilitator for Telfer Executive Programs’ Quality Improvement & Patient Safety Leadership Program.

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