NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region, South Slave Region

Tags: health, health care evaluation, electronic health record

Objective(s): To contribute evaluation and health economics analyses for the purposes of quality improvement for the Integrated Care Teams (ICT), and to develop a deeper understanding of how Indigenous patients of the ICTs experience health care in this new service delivery model through storytelling and sharing in interviews.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.4953. The objectives of this research is to 1) contribute evaluation and health economics analyses for the purposes of quality improvement for the integrated care teams (ICTs), and 2) develop a deeper understanding of how Indigenous patients of the ICTs experience health care in this new service delivery model through storytelling and sharing in interviews. Together, these objectives aim to help improve processes and quality of care for all primary care patients in the NWT, but also serve as the foundation for novel ways of continuously evaluating whether primary care teams are providing culturally safe care for Indigenous patients. This is a mixed methods evaluation, combining: 1. Health economics analyses of aggregate administrative and Electronic Medical Record data; 2. Descriptive statistics of primary care activity mapped to specific primary care quality indicators; 3. Survey data elicited from both ICT staff and patients; 4. Qualitative interview data with ICT staff and Indigenous ICT patients, and focus groups with ICT staff. This research has been contracted directly by the primary stakeholder, which is the team responsible for Primary Health Care Reform in the Department of Health and Social Services within the government of the Northwest Territories. The evaluation will produce a final report, a methodological summary; and a plain language summary. This is an external evaluation from the system, and the results will be disseminated according to the Dept. of Health and Social Services (DHSS) communications strategy. This will include disseminating results to research participants (which includes both patients and Integrated Care Team staff). In addition, there may be collaborations with the GNWT DHSS team on future scientific publications at their discretion and request. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from June 17, 2021 to December 31, 2021.