This presentation provides an overview of a quality improvement project designed to reduce the time to access child health clinic appointments at the Nanaimo Public Health Unit.

2. It’s important you
get your baby
immunized on
schedule!
…and then I told her the
next appointment was
two months from now!
Nurse Conversation Admin Staff Conversation

3. Background
• Public Health promotes timely
immunization of infants and toddlers
• Unofficial (provincial) standard is two
weeks to next appointment
• Access has grown to over 50 days in
several health units at Island Health
• Credibility of Public Health is at risk
• Most importantly infants and toddlers are
at risk

4. Aim of Project
Access to the 3rd
next <2 year old Child
Health Clinic appointments will be improved
from 57 days to 14 days at the Nanaimo
Health Unit, and the satellite office of
Princess Royal Family Centre by March 31,
2015.

5. Team Members
Name Role/Responsibilities
Brett Hodson Overall Project Management Leadership and
Coordination
Marie Duperreault Site and Change Management Leadership
Tricia Fothergill Site change design and leadership
Erin Kenning Site change design and leadership
Lynn Mason Administrative data gathering and change
leadership
Helen Von Bucholz Project Support
Sandra Guerrier HR Business Partner

6. Changes Tested
• Survey of Clients to determine
acceptability of time to access
appointments (14 days to 28 days), and
drop in clinics
• Determine real time appointment demand
• Reduced ‘drop in’ clinic availability to once
a week from twice a week
• Eliminated fee for service activities
• Added 34 of total 49 appointments per
week needed to meet demand

7. Results so Far

8. Results so Far

9. Elimination of
Thursday Drop
In

10. Elimination of
Thursday
Drop In
Start of
Measles
outbreak
concerns
"Reduced
Service
Week"

12. Comparison of Grant and Princess Royal Service Delivery Sites
Date

13. Lessons Learned
• Half of clients who accessed drop-ins
prefer booked appointments
• Pre-intervention study and assessment
revealed overall lack of capacity
• Adding capacity improves short term
outcomes, however holiday period and
unanticipated events may confound
intervention
• Staff report mixed feelings about improved
time/task management capability

14. Next Steps: Future Focus
• Continue to collect data to:
– Monitor time to access appointments
– Collect additional data on real time
appointment demands to determine need to
add capacity to reach full 49 total
appointments as per original plan
– Develop sustainability for this specific work at
the local office
– Plan to disseminate findings

15. Contact Information
Brett Hodson, Manager
Public Health Services
Brett.Hodson@viha.ca
@hodson4qph