Episodios

  • S5 Ep5: Reducing hospital admissions for mental health crises by bridging hospital and community care featuring Alanna Summers, Jennifer Sandberg and Jane Dolan

    S5 Ep5: Reducing hospital admissions for mental health crises by bridging hospital and community care featuring Alanna Summers, Jennifer Sandberg and Jane Dolan
    Jan 9 2026

    In this episode we feature another award-winning, quality improvement project this time based in Victoria, Vancouver Island. Our guests are Alanna Summers, Program Manager and a registered psychiatric nurse, Jennifer Sandburg, Team Lead occupational therapist, and Jane Dolan, MHSU Clinical recreational therapist, from the South Island Mental Health and Substance Use team. Starting with the gap in care they first identified, they take us through how they developed their cost effective and successful Bridging Care program for patients in mental health crisis. This program not only provides effective, patient-centered care but has also reduced hospital admissions and inpatient length of stay. We hear how local healthcare leadership had the foresight to support the original vision, powerful testimonials from some of the program’s patients, and how developing the program itself brought positive benefits to the provider team.

    Links:
    Counselling, Treatment & Recovery | Island Health
    News
    Adults experiencing mental health challenges benefit from Island Health’s Bridging Care Program | Island Health
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    27 m
  • S5 Ep4: "Taking a bite out of health inequity" featuring Dr. Diana Bark and Lara Frederick

    S5 Ep4: "Taking a bite out of health inequity" featuring Dr. Diana Bark and Lara Frederick
    Dec 28 2025
    In this episode, we head upstream in our health system with this podcast’s first ever guests from the public health sector. Northern Health’s Medical Health Officer Dr. Diana Bark and Director of Public Health Lara Frederick take us through their QI work identifying, analyzing, and addressing a gap in dental health screening and dental caries prevention in pre-kindergarten age children in Northeast BC. We learn how QI methodology can be applied to complex problems in public health and how, through enhanced community engagement, their team provided valuable, preventative, dental care and improved health equity at the same time.

    Links:

    https://www.northernhealth.ca/services/programs/dental-health-program-for-children#baby-0-to-12-months-old
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    24 m
  • S5 Ep3: Optimizing Visiting Specialist Clinics and Equitable Care featuring Dr. Angela How

    S5 Ep3: Optimizing Visiting Specialist Clinics and Equitable Care featuring Dr. Angela How
    Dec 13 2025
    Visiting specialist clinics are a lifeline for patients with chronic disease in rural and remote communities across the North. They save patients travel time and costs and also provide care in context of their own local communities and available supports. But patient non-attendance at these clinics can negatively impact the quality of their longitudinal care leading to increased morbidity. In this episode, Dr. Angela How takes us through her quality improvement work based at her rural visiting specialist rheumatology clinic in Hazelton improving patient attendance through a culturally safe approach incorporating motivational interviewing techniques. At the same time, we hear how her 28 year commitment to her Hazelton clinic has been both personally rewarding and helped to build local trust by providing equitable patient care.
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    24 m
  • S5 Ep2: With Great Data Comes Great Responsibility featuring Dr. Cole Stanley and Gayle Grout from Health Data Coalition

    S5 Ep2: With Great Data Comes Great Responsibility featuring Dr. Cole Stanley and Gayle Grout from Health Data Coalition
    Dec 2 2025
    Our topic in this episode is the power and potential of good data for improving patient care. In a broad ranging interview with our guests Dr. Cole Stanley and Gayle Grout from Health Data Coalition (HDC), we hear about the origins and goals of HDC and how the aggregation of primary care electronic medical record data can provide Primary Care providers reassurance and drive improvements in care. We talk about the importance of feedback loops, the benefits and dangers of comparison and how such data can support a whole system quality approach. HDC is a great example of a how a non-profit, collaborative, physician-led and governed data coalition can drive better patient care whilst maintaining privacy.

    Health Data Coalition – Better Information. Better Care. Better Patient Outcomes.

    HDC Bright Spots: Bright Spots – Health Data Coalition
    HDC MD's Corner: MD’s Corner – Health Data Coalition
    LinkedIn: Health Data Coalition of BC | LinkedIn
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    26 m
  • S5 Ep1: Goodbye Season 4, Hello Season 5!

    S5 Ep1: Goodbye Season 4, Hello Season 5!
    Nov 24 2025
    As season 4 comes to and end and we enter our 5th year of the podcast with season 5, Shyr and Lee reflect on their favourite highlights from last season. With twice as many episodes as previous seasons, there was a lot to choose from and of course all our guests left an indelible impression. What can we look forward to in the season ahead? More great Quality Improvement projects, high profile guests and maybe even one or two surprises. Don’t want to miss an episode? Subscribe to our channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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    14 m
  • S4 Ep20: What the Mayo Clinic Gets Right featuring Drs. Kalah Blackstock and Dr. John Hwang

    S4 Ep20: What the Mayo Clinic Gets Right featuring Drs. Kalah Blackstock and Dr. John Hwang
    Oct 24 2025
    From a healthcare quality perspective, you can’t get much better than the Mayo Clinic. Its global reputation for high quality patient care is unsurpassed. But what exactly makes the Mayo Clinic so good and what can other institutions learn from how the Mayo Clinic does business? To find out, the Doctors of BC recently arranged for a group of British Columbian physicians to visit the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, to hear, see and experience how they deliver care. To talk about their learnings and key takeaways from that trip are today’s guests, Dr. Kalah Blackstock a family physician in Smithers and Physician Co-chair and Advisor to Northern Health’s Physician Quality Improvement program, and Dr. John Hwang, a general surgeon at the Royal Columbian Hospital in Vancouver and the current Board Chair of The Doctors of BC. In our wide-ranging discussion, we talk about the importance of organizational vision, physician leadership, data and above all culture. Listen in and discover the Mayo’s special sauce.
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    27 m
  • S4 Ep19: Order in the Face of Wildfire Chaos featuring Gloria Hertz and John Coyne

    S4 Ep19: Order in the Face of Wildfire Chaos featuring Gloria Hertz and John Coyne
    Oct 3 2025
    Residents in British Columbia are no strangers to wildfires which have increased in number and ferocity over recent years. But when an out-of-control wildfire threatens a town, its residents and its healthcare facilities, it rapidly turns into a nightmare come true. The sudden need for healthcare facility evacuation is a recipe for potential chaos and confusion and poses increased risks for patients and care home residents. To talk about their amazing and award-winning Quality Improvement work in reducing the risks of emergency healthcare facility evacuation are today’s guests from Health Emergency Management BC (HEM BC) Gloria Hertz and John Coyne.
    Other abbreviations mentioned in this episode are IIHAR (Inter and Intra Health Authority Relocation), HSDA (Health Services Delivery Area), ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support), BCEHS (British Columbia Emergency Health Services – formally BC Ambulance Services) and PHSA (Provincial Health Services Authority).
    Links:
    Health Emergency Management BC (including links to the IIHAR toolkit)
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    43 m
  • S4 Ep18: If I don’t do it, who will?” Improving healthcare quality through openness, community engagement and the wisdom of Grandmothers featuring Nicole Cross

    S4 Ep18: If I don’t do it, who will?” Improving healthcare quality through openness, community engagement and the wisdom of Grandmothers featuring Nicole Cross
    Sep 18 2025
    This week we’re returning to Northern Health’s C-Suite and interview Nicole Cross, Northern Health’s Vice President of Indigenous Health and Chief Planning and Quality Officer. In this treat of an episode, we cover a wide range of topics including her career journey from entry-level Indigenous Patient Liaison to the Northern Health’s Executive C-suite. Nicole explains her vision for engaging patients and communities in their own care and care system; how openness and transparency is the key to how the system learns and why quality should be embedded and not optional in our healthcare system, before finishing with a heart-warming account of how her early life experience in her home Nisga'a Village of Laxgalts'ap drives her motivation and work with the Executive team.
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    36 m
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