Accreditation Canada: is a not-for-profit, independent organization accredited by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua). Accreditation Canada provides national and international health care organizations with an external peer review process to assess and improve the services they provide to patients and clients, based on standards of excellence. (Accreditation Canada)
 
Adverse Event: An event that results in unintended harm to the patient and is related to the care and/or services provided to the patient rather than to the patient’s underlying medical condition. (World Health Organization)
 
Aim: A written, measurable, and time-sensitive statement of the expected results of an improvement process. (IHI)
 
Balanced Scorecard: is a performance management tool that helps link strategic goals with performance indicators, and can track these indicators over time.
 
Big Dot Measures: Boards and senior teams tend to focus on what are sometimes called “big dot” measures. These measures track progress on broad outcomes at a system level. (CIHI)
 
Dashboard: is an executive information system user interface that (similar to a cars dashboard) is designed to be easy to read.
 
Excellent Care for All Act: this Act was introduced in 2010, and aims to put patients first by improving the quality and value of the patient experience through the application of evidence-based health care. The Act aims to improve health care while ensuring that the system we rely on today is there for future generations.  The Act includes legislative changes that hospitals will implement first, and will be assessed prior to extending these requirements to other health sectors. (MOHLTC, Public Hospital Act)

Governance Centre of Excellence (GCE): THE GCE provides a broad range of relevant services, resources, thought leadership, and educational programs including online supports and tools for health care boards. The GCE is an initiative of the OHA.
 
Health Quality Ontario (HQO): Formerly the Ontario Health Quality Council (OHQC), Health Quality Ontario is a crown agency in Ontario that is arms length from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the provincial government. HQO has the mandate to monitor and report on health care performance to the public, support quality improvement in the health care system, and promote the use of the best evidence in health care. (HQO)

Hospital Standard Mortality Ratio: (HSMR) is an important measure to support efforts to improve patient safety and quality of care in Canadian hospitals. The HSMR compares the actual number of deaths in a hospital with the average Canadian experience, after adjusting for several factors that may affect in-hospital mortality rates, such as the age, sex, diagnosis and admission status of patients. The ratio provides a starting point to assess mortality rates and identify areas for improvement to help reduce hospital deaths. (CIHI)
 
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI):  is a not-for-profit organization helping to lead the improvement of health care throughout the world. Founded in 1991 and based in Massachusetts, IHI works to accelerate improvement by building the will for change, cultivating concepts for improving patient care, and helping health care systems put those ideas into action. (IHI)
 
Lean/Six Sigma: is an approach that seeks to improve processes and eliminate waste.  Six sigma uses frameworks and statistical tools to uncover root causes to understand and reduce variation. A combination of both provides a structured improvement approach and effective tools to solve problems. (NHS Institute for Innovation & Improvement)
 
Little Dot Measures: Specific performance that measure the performance of various units or areas of an organization.
 
Local Health Integration Network (LHIN): There are 14 LHINs across Ontario. They are regional health administrative offices that have a mandate to plan, fund and integrate health care services locally.  (LHIN)
 
Measure: An indicator of change. Key measures should be focused, clarify your team’s aim, and be reportable. A measure is used to track the delivery of proven interventions to patients and to monitor progress over time. (IHI)

Medical Advisory Committee (MAC): is a committee formed by the physician Chief of Staff as well as various department heads within the organization. The MAC reports to the board on issues related to quality of patient care. (OHA)
 
Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care: is the Ministry within the Ontario provincial government responsible for establishing the overall strategic direction and provincial priorities for the health care system. This includes developing legislation, regulations, standards, policies, and directives to support those strategic directions. It also includes monitoring and reporting on health system performance, planning and establishing funding models and levels of funding for health system planning and ensuring that accountability that these strategic directions are fulfilled. (MOHTLC)

Ontario Hospital Association (OHA): The OHA uses advocacy, education and partnerships to build a strong, innovative and sustainable health care system for all Ontarians. Over the years, the OHA has influenced and helped shape health care policy in Ontario — from helping the government establish the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) in the 1950s to harnessing the efficiencies of group buying power by creating Ontario’s Hospital Purchasing Program in the 1970s. Today, representing approximately 154 public hospitals, the OHA assumes a leadership role, focused on patients, promoting an efficient and effective health system.

Patient Declaration of Values: Patient Declaration of Values is developed with patients and the community to clarify public expectations of the organization, and commit the organization to patient-centred care.  The Excellent Care for All Act, 2011, requires all hospitals to have a publicly available Patient Declaration of Values (OHA and MOHLTC)

Patient Safety: “the reduction, and mitigation of unsafe acts within the healthcare system, as well as through the use of best practices shown to lead to optimal patient outcomes.” (Canadian Patient Safety Dictionary)
 
Quality: For the purposes of this toolkit, quality is defined as “doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, for the right person – and having the best possible results.” (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, supported by the OHA and HQO).
 
Run Charts: are graphs of data over time, and are one of the single most important tools in performance improvement. Using run charts can help depict how well (or poorly) a process is performing. Run charts can also help determine when changes are truly improvements, by displaying a pattern of data that can be observed as changes are made. Run charts also provide direction during improvement processes. (IHI)