TOP of Mind - THE CHANGE FOUNDATION's E-Newsletter February 2010 What's CHQI done for you lately? For starters, smoothing transitions for many more patients like Flo and giving its website a QI makeover. Since 2007, CHQI's Flo initiative has aimed to improve transitions as patients move from hospital to community and to build long-term capability for quality improvement among health-care organizations across Ontario's Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). Gains to date on both fronts are encouraging. "It's really been quite impressive," said Susan Taylor, project lead at CHQI. "The teams are very rapidly spreading the change ideas to move patients from admission to discharge in more timely and efficient ways." The 2009 follow-up Flo Spread Strategy has added 26 hospital/CCAC partnerships to the original 29, mostly tackling change on multiple acute-care units in half the time and with lighter support from CHQI's QI consultants. See CHQI's new and improved website for tools created and adapted by improvement teams -- for example tools to streamline and improve communication. Early in 2010, the LHINs and CHQI are co-hosting regional wrap-up sessions to celebrate and share plans for sustaining success. Meanwhile, CHQI coaches are intensively supporting six of the 16 hospitals receiving active coaching in Wave 2 of the Emergency Department Process Improvement Program. Visit CHQI's new website for QI tools and resources by topic area - and stay tuned for its new e-newsletter, The Quality Pulse.