Evaluating the implementation of a referral system for virtual pharmacy counselling in a province-wide nurse phone line.

Digital technology offers several opportunities to improve access to professional expertise in primary care, and the offer of various "virtual" services has exploded in the past few years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of a direct-to-consumer on-line pharmacy consultation service (Ask Your Pharmacist - AYP) to a universal phone consultation service led by the universal public health system in Quebec (811 Info-Santé), through a direct bridge. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with clinician users of the service, and stakeholders involved in this pilot project funded by the Ministry of Economy (n = 22); documents were also analyzed, and content of the question was asked through the AYP service. Adoption of the service was low, and it suggests a poor alignment between the need and the service as implemented. Further research should investigate the mechanisms for an appropriate integration of digital services for primary care universal consultation services.

Business Intelligence Dashboards for Patient Safety and Quality: A Narrative Literature Review.

Business Intelligence (BI) dashboards are interactive data visualization displays identifying key patient quality and safety trends and metrics. Yet, it remains unclear whether dashboards are impacting clinical care for desired organizational outcomes. In this paper we summarize the positive and negative impacts of dashboards on safety and quality from the literature and those insights are used to develop a dashboard checklist tool. The research involved 3 phases. In Phase 1 a narrative literature review used "Dashboards AND ("Patient Safety" OR "Quality")" as primary search terms. In Phase 2, A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis was conducted based on the findings from the previous phase. Strengths and opportunities included focusing on metrics, clear goals, routine data review processes, transparency, quality improvement interventions and centralized monitoring. Weaknesses and threats included usability issues, cultural barriers, wrong metrics, tunnel vision and siloed development. Phase 3 involves translating the SWOT analysis to a checklist for evidence informed dashboard development and deployment.