All interprofessional primary health care organizations, as well as hospitals and long-term care facilities, are required to submit a quality improvement plan (QIP) to Ontario Health (OH) every year. QIPs are due by March 31 for the fiscal year that begins on April 1.

QIPs are submitted to OH through their online QIP Navigator tool (now open for 2025-26). 

Each year, OH selects several priority issues for the QIP program and a number of suggested indicators for each of these issues. Although it is mandatory to submit a QIP, the suggested indicators are optional for primary health care organizations. Each organization should tailor or choose indicators according to their strategic goals as well as the priorities, needs, and assets of the people and communities they serve. Where possible, they should reflect quality improvement work that is already planned or underway at your organization. 

The resources linked from this page can help you develop your organization's indicators for this year's QIP. 

# Common QIP Indicators for Alliance Member Organizations

Since 2019, we have encouraged our members to start from a set of Common QIP indicators developed and ratified by our membership. These common QIP indicators are informed by our sector's core values, as reflected in our shared Model of Health and Wellbeing, our collective QI efforts, and our Health Equity Charter. 

  • Completion of Sociodemographic Data Collection
  • Stratified Cervical Cancer Screening Rate
  • Client Feels Comfortable and Welcome at CHC
  • Client Involvement in Decisions about their Care
  • Client Perception of Timely Access to Care

More information about the Common QIP indicators can be found in the documents below:

# Learn from your Peers: 2024-25 QIPs from Alliance-Member CHCs

You may find it helpful to look at what other CHCs included in last year's QIPs.

This report contains data from the 2024-25 QIPs submitted by the Alliance's 74 CHC members.

  • 2024-25 CHC QIP Indicators Spreadsheet (download): A complete, filterable list of measures in the CHCs’ 2024-25 QIPs, along with current and target performance, change ideas, process measures, and goals. 
  • 2024-25 CHC QIP Summary Report: a two-page handout focused on four of the Alliance’s five Common QIP indicators: Completion of sociodemographic data, client involvement in decisions about their care and treatment, client perception of timely access to care, and client feeling comfortable and welcome at the centre. 

# Supports for Sociodemographic Data Collection

In 2020, Alliance members made a unanimous commitment to improving the collection of health equity (sociodemographic) data, with a goal of achieving a 75% completion rate across the sector by December 31, 2024. To help our members meet this coal, the Alliance has committed to providing tools and supports for our members, including:

  • Sociodemographic data placemats, updated quarterly, reflecting each member's rates of complete, unusable, and missing data for each of the sociodemographic domains. 
  • Foundations of Equity, a year-long learning collaborative (May 2022 - April 2023).
  • RALI-SDD: Advancing Sociodemographic Data Collection for Equity. Our new Rapid Action Learning Intensive (RALI) collaborative learning model has been available to Alliance members . This is a self-paced, coach-supported online learning tool developed with input from Alliance members. Participants gain access to four video modules, an interactive workbook, and tailored coaching supports. To learn more or sign up, email QI@AllianceON.org.

# Ontario Health's 2025-26 QIP Priority Issues, Indicators, and Supports

OH's four priority issues for 2025-26 are the same as last year's, although a few of the suggested indicators for each of them have been changed. Indicators marked with an asterisk (*) are also found in the Alliance's Common QIP indicators. 

  • Access & Flow. 
    • *Patient/client perception of timely access to care 
    • Number of new patients/clients/enrolments 
    • Percentage of clients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who are up to date with HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin) blood glucose monitoring
    • Percentage of screen-eligible people who are up to date with colorectal tests
    • Percentage of screen-eligible people who are up to date with cervical screening
    • Percentage of screen-eligible people who are up to date with breast screening
  • Equity 
    • Percentage of staff (executive-level, management, or all) who have completed relevant equity, diversity, inclusion, and antiracism education
    • *Completion of sociodemographic data collection 
    • Percentage of clients actively receiving mental health care from a traditional provider
    • Number of events and participants for traditional teaching, healing, or ceremony
  • Patient/Client and Provider Experience
    • *Do patients/clients feel comfortable and welcome at their primary care office?
  • Safety 
    • Number of faxes sent per 1,000 rostered patients
    • Provincial digital solutions suite (6 indicators): Percentage of clinicians in the primary care practice using… [eReferral, eConsult, OLIS, HRM, electronic prescribing, online appointment booking]

# QIP Supports from Ontario Health

All OH QIP resources, including the guidance document, technical specifications, and a blank QIP template, can now be accessed from the QIP Navigator page. With the exception of the webinar recording, all are available in both English and French. These resources include this year's QIP Guidance Document, Narrative Questions, and Indicator Technical Specifications, as well as the slide deck from their launch webinar. 

OH will also be hosting drop-in QIP support sessions on several afternoons in January. Sign up here.  

The QIP Navigator online QIP submission form will remain open until March 31, 2024.

The new Query QIPs tool allows you to generate reports from other organizations' previous QIPs and progress reports by sector, theme, year, and keyword. No login is required. This tool can be a helpful resource when developing the narrative portion of your QIP.