Edmundston Regional Hospital – New Brunswick’s first Choosing Wisely Designated Hospital
Vitalité Health Network’s Edmundston Regional Hospital is the first site in New Brunswick to receive national designation as a Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC) Hospital.
The CWC Hospital Designation Program recognizes hospitals that take deliberate action to reduce overuse and demonstrate organizational commitment to minimizing waste and harm. Unnecessary tests and treatments are not only potentially harmful to patients, but also consume precious hospital resources.
Fortunately, there are known and effective ways to curb overuse and the Edmundston Regional Hospital has implemented several of these measures in order to receive the designation. Presently, the hospital has achieved the Quality Improvement Status level by implementing a number of system-level changes as recommended by CWC.
The focus of their work has been on reducing, replacing, and optimizing several different laboratory tests. This includes updating liver, lipase and iron profiles, while removing obsolete tests such as the myoglobin blood test and red blood cell folate. Another tactic has been the implementation of decision profiles to help ensure certain tests aren’t requested unnecessarily, for instance free triiodothyronine (FT3) and free thyroxine (FT4) testing is not done if the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) test is normal.
Dr. Ihssan Bouhtiauy, Clinical Chief of Biochemistry at the Network, who is leading this initiative states, “I am very proud of our achievement with Choosing Wisely Canada, and the hard work from our teams to optimize resources. Providing evidence-based care and making the effort to eliminate unnecessary tests and treatments has positive outcomes from the patient level, up to the health care system. It is a win for all.”
Next steps for the Edmundston Regional Hospital involve working towards CWC Leadership Status, by implementing additional quality improvement initiatives as well as mentoring other sites on their CW improvement efforts. Several other Vitalité Health Network and Horizon Health Network sites are currently enrolled in CWC national programs, such as Using Blood Wisely, with the intent to earn national recognition and ultimately optimize resource utilization across the province.