Dr. Tammy LeRiche wins quality improvement award

What you need to know                      

• Dr. Tammy LeRiche won the 2024 Telfer Award of Excellence: Leadership in Healthcare Improvement for her distinction in applying the quality improvement method and her leadership in promoting cross-collaboration with various healthcare practitioners.      
• The Telfer Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Leadership Program helps physicians and healthcare professionals become quality and patient safety leaders in their institutions – register by August 30, 2024.

Patients and healthcare workers are familiar with long wait times for surgeries and outpatient procedures. This issue has only gotten worse due to resource challenges and COVID-related delays. Long wait times drastically impact patient quality of life and over time, can create more complex problems for patients than their initial complaint.

Dr. Tammy LeRiche set out to tackle this problem in her area of practice for the project she undertook as part of the Telfer Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Leadership Program. Dr. LeRiche is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist who serves in a collaborative role with The Ottawa Hospital and Kemptville District Hospital. Her project, the Same Day Discharge Laparoscopic Hysterectomy (SDDLH) Regional Program, established a regional community center where appropriately selected patients could safely receive same-day laparoscopic hysterectomy surgery. Dr. LeRiche and the Same Day Discharge Laparoscopic Hysterectomy (SDDLH) Regional Program won the 2024 Telfer Award of Excellence: Leadership in Healthcare Improvement.

What inspired SDDLH?

Dr. LeRiche was drawn to the project when she saw that the number of patients waiting for hysterectomy surgery at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) was much higher than at other comparatively sized healthcare facilities. As a practicing OBGYN, she knows the importance of this type of care and how it impacts the lives of Canadians. “Access to appropriate and timely gynecological care is so important to personal and societal function. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada noted that in 2009, endometriosis alone was estimated to carry an economic cost of $1.8 billion,” Dr. LeRiche shared. “Access to timely care and surgical intervention can decrease this personal and societal cost - not just for persons suffering with endometriosis, but also the many other conditions requiring a hysterectomy.”

During her root cause analysis, she determined that all patients needing hysterectomy surgery were grouped together, with no triage to determine which patients needed more complex surgical care and which could receive a lower risk laparoscopic procedure. This led to long wait times for all patients. With SDDLH, patients who were screened and determined to be low risk for complications were selected to receive outpatient surgery at Kemptville District Hospital rather than at TOH. 

How is SDDLH creating a healthier Canada?

Of the patients who have received care so far, all have been satisfied with their surgical care, and none have required readmission to a hospital for complications. Data collection is underway to determine the amount that surgical wait time has decreased. Dr. LeRiche notes that, from a front-line perspective, the project has been a huge success for both patients and staff. “The feedback has been very positive on all fronts. The staff at Kemptville District Hospital have embraced this new procedure with open arms and provided excellent care to the patients who have had surgery there to date,” she shared.

Dr. LeRiche noted that leadership skills critical to the SDDLH project included communication, collaboration, and planning to bridge together two teams at two very different hospitals. In building stakeholder buy-in for the project, she noted that communication was a crucial leadership skill as “...any new project requires education and information. Involving the teams regularly through multiple communication streams ensured everyone felt comfortable as we introduced this new procedure. Once we launched, debriefing was done to realize any concerns or required improvements from all frontline staff and patients.” 

Tammy was one of twelve participants in Telfer Executive Programs’ Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Leadership Programs. During this 10-day program that runs over the course of 9 months, participants undertake a project within their health care institutions to improve quality and patient safety. Dr. LeRiche launched the SDDLH program under the guidance of Co-Program Directors, Samantha Hamilton and Mary Yates.  

She encourages others who have an interest in quality improvement and patient safety to join the program: “Every project counts. Start with a small project and grow. Communicate with your team regularly and efficiently and you can make a difference for patients.”

Dr. Tammy LeRiche is the third recipient of the Telfer Award of Excellence: Leadership in Healthcare Improvement for the SDDLH project. She was awarded for her distinction in applying the QI method and her leadership in promoting cross-collaboration with various healthcare practitioners, allowing her to drive forward a QI initiative. Dr. LeRiche demonstrated this in her project work, as well as in the high quality of her project poster and presentation. This annual award recognizes excellence in the projects taken on by QIPS participants as they work toward making strides in quality improvement and patient care. 

The QIPS program connects physicians and healthcare professionals across Canada who are looking to make an impact on improving quality and patient safety in their institutions. Hundreds of projects have been initiated to date in efforts to improve patient care and outcomes.   

To learn about how Telfer is working towards fostering a healthier Canada, discover the Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Leadership Program - registration for the 2024-25 program closes on August 30, 2024.