Sustainable quality improvement & patient safety
Sustainability is intrinsically linked with both quality care and patient safety and can be embedded within quality improvement and patient safety efforts.
Upcoming training and events
Implementation resources for sustainability in quality improvement & patient safety
Sustainability-Embedded Quality Improvement Toolkit (Beta version)
This toolkit will help individuals and teams incorporate environmental sustainability into quality improvement (QI) initiatives, and envision how you can adjust, measure and report those impacts.
NOTE: This is a beta version of the toolkit, which is currently being tested by several pilot sites. Individual users are welcome to use the beta-toolkit during the pilot phase. We welcome any feedback you might have about the tool; this can be provided via a short survey embedded at the end of the toolkit. The finalized toolkit will be available in late fall 2025.
Integrating Sustainability into Healthcare Quality Improvement Education Playbook
Campaigns for appropriate glove use
Videos
Playlist
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Sustainable quality improvement & patient safety projects in development
Development of a new publication guideline for the reporting of quality improvement projects aimed at addressing the healthcare system's impact on the climate crisis
Develop and disseminate a new publication guideline for reporting of quality improvement projects that address environmental sustainability. The overarching publication guideline, which is currently housed at Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQUIPS), is called the “Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence” (SQUIRE). It is an evidence-based extension with an international scope.
Project Leaders:
- Brian Wong Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQUIPS)
- Karen Born Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto
- Leahora Rotteau Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQUIPS)
Working group members: Allison Muniak; Ayoma Ratnappuli; Ilona Hale; Karina Spoyalo; Mercedes Magaz; Nicole Simms and Arianna Cruz
We want to hear from you
Materials created by CASCADES are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
While it is not a requirement under the license, we would be grateful if you would let us know where and how you use, share or adapt our materials.
Other action areas
Care pathways
Key actions can minimize the environmental harms of medications throughout their lifecycle and address increased medication-related risks due to climate change.
Many opportunities exist to address the resource intensity of perioperative care while ensuring and promoting high quality care.
Comprehensive person-centered primary and community care can support health and wellbeing and reduce the need for more resource intensive services.
Practitioners across specialties can take meaningful steps to reduce the environmental impacts of their practice and safeguard patient and population health.
Health services can promote health, including by delivering healthy food, effective chronic disease management, and climate-adapted clinical care.
System enablers
Sustainability is intrinsically linked with both quality care and patient safety and can be embedded within these efforts.
Leadership and good governance are needed to develop and deliver effective climate and sustainability strategy.
The shift to climate resilient and sustainable health systems requires accurate assessment of healthcare’s environmental impacts.
Health systems can leverage their purchasing power to influence vendors and shape markets for sustainable and resilient health sector products and services.
Healthy food, digital innovation and effective waste management are among the key enablers of low-carbon, sustainable and climate-resilient health systems.