Steps for EQI program
1- Registration
The first step is registration in the EQI program. For registration, you should e-mail eqi@corhealthontario.ca with your interest. CorHealth will contact you to start the process. In this step, they will ask you to provide some information about your facility and your colleagues.
2- Document Review
In this step of the EQI program, you will be asked to submit Facility Agreement Form, Attestation Form, and the documented policies and protocols. This is where EchOntario helps you to develop your policies and protocols based on the required EQI standards. We will make sure that all requirements by CorHealth are met in the documented policies and protocols before submission. You will need to submit the prepared documents using the EQI uploading portal.
3- On-Site Review
In this step, CorHealth will contact you to book a site visit from your facility. The length of the visit can vary depending on the size of your facility. Smaller facilities may take 1 day, whereas a large academic facility may take several days. The Medical and Technical Directors must be present and available during the Site Visit. All echocardiography facilities/sites, whether mobile or fixed, will be reviewed as part of the EQI Program.
The CorHealth Ontario reviewer will focus their visit on your echocardiographic facility, the equipment and standard operating procedures. They will also observe a patient going through their procedure (TTE, SE and/or TEE). Reviewers focus on patient safety, image acquisition protocols, scheduling, communication, patient management and confidentiality.
Reviewers will use the on-site Echocardiography Information Management System (EIMS) to review the quality and completeness of the images that constitute a study. The Reporting Review also relies on the EIMS to review the completeness, consistency and quality of the final reports (TTE, SE and/or TEE studies). The number of studies reviewed depends on the number of physicians and modalities offered at the facility. Site Reviewers need access to all studies dating back 6 months. From these, they will select random studies (TTE, SE, and/or TEE images), both with and without pathology.
EchOntario will help you to ensure that all elements of your facility (staff, material, equipment, procedures in place, etc.) are ready for the CorHealth On-Site Review session.
4- Finding and Recommendations
After the CorHealth visit to your facility, the result of the review will be provided to you. Sometimes, the review highlights the need to address some issues before your facility achieves the EQI certification. EchOntario will help you to address the outstanding issues.
5- Implementation of Recommendations
If there are any recommendations in the Final Report sent by CorHealth, they should be implemented before your facility can obtain the EQI certification. EchOntario will help you to implement the recommendations of CorHealth so that your facility qualifies for the EQI accreditation.
6- Certificate of Achievement
After completion of previous five steps, your facility will be issued the EQI Certificate of Achievement.