The goal of the Quality Assurance (QA) Program is to protect the public by working in partnership with R. TCMPs and R. Acs to support and provide them with tools to demonstrate their ongoing competence.
Peer and Practice Assessments (Assessments) are a component of the QA Program. The Assessments play a key role in ensuring members are meeting their professional responsibilities and providing safe, competent and ethical care.
The Regulated Health Professionals Act, 1991, requires all regulatory health Colleges to establish a QA Committee. The Act authorizes the QA Committee to appoint Assessors as part of the QA Program. The Assessors are members of the College who are trained to review other practitioners’ practice and assess their knowledge, skill and judgment.
There are several ways in which a member can undergo an Assessment, for example, the QA Committee can require a member to undergo a Peer and Practice Assessment if:
Peer and practice assessments are meant to be educative and not punitive. The goal is to promote continuing competence and to ensure that practitioners are meeting the current standards of practice.
NOTE: Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all peer and practice assessments have been put on hold until further notice. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will provide an update when the program resumes.
1. Review CTCMPAO’s regulations, standards of practice, policies and guidelines.
2. Send the following items to CTCMPAO (addressed to the Quality Assurance Committee) within 30 days of receiving notice for the date of the assessment:
Plan your schedule to allow for meetings with your assessors and advise clinic staff to help the assessor select patient files for review. The assessor will review up to 10 patient files during the assessment that they will randomly select from your records. You will not be able to pre-select the records for them.
The peer assessors will share the findings of the assessment report with you and provide suggestions how to improve your practice and note any suggestions they may have. The report will then be forwarded to the Quality Assurance Committee for review at the next meeting of the committee. A follow up letter will be sent to you after the committee reviews the report, it will advise you of the next steps. Please note that the Quality Assurance Committee meets once a month, any follow up correspondence may take 4-6 weeks.
QA Committee may determine that one or more of the members’ knowledge, skills or judgment is not satisfactory;
QA Committee will review and consider a written submission submitted by a member. If the Committee is of the opinion that the member’s knowledge, skills or judgment is still not satisfactory, the QA Committee may require the member to participate in remedial activity –including specified education, refresher or continuing education programs, courses or initiatives.
The Quality Assurance (QA) Program is an important aspect of the College’s mandate. All Colleges under the Health Procedures Code, Schedule 2 of the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA) must:
The QA Program for all Colleges must include:
The RHPA requires a health professional College to establish a Quality Assurance Committee and to make regulations prescribing a QA program. It authorizes a QA Committee to appoint assessors for the purpose of the QA program. All members of the College are required to participate in the QA program and to cooperate with the assessors and the Quality Assurance Committee.
TCMPs and R. Acs are members of the CTCMPAO. Registration ensures that they have met the professional requirements of the College and are competent to practice. The QA program ensures that R. TCMPs and R. Acs initial competencies acquired to practice as members of the College are maintained through members engaging in professional development and continuing education activities that relate to the practice of the profession.
Under section 82 of the Regulated Health Professions Act (RHPA), all registered members are required to participate in the Peer Practice Assessment Program. If a member does not fully participate in the Peer Practice Assessment Program, the QA Committee may refer the matter to the College’s Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee for consideration of professional misconduct.
If you actively practice traditional Chinese medicine and/or traditional Chinese acupuncture (i.e. you do not hold a certificate in the inactive class of registration), your assessment will entail a review of current patient files and your knowledge of CTCMPAO regulations, standards of practice, policies and guidelines.
If you do not actively practice traditional Chinese medicine and/or traditional Chinese acupuncture (i.e., you hold a certificate in the Inactive class of registration), you will undergo a modified assessment. For example, if you do not actively see patients, your assessment would entail a review of your knowledge of CTCMPAO regulations, standards of practice, policies and guidelines.
Pursuant to the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, section 36 of the Code any information regarding Peer Practice assessment is confidential and will be shared only with the QA Committee. No other committee will have access to this information. The QA Committee requires assessors to sign a confidentiality agreement and will consider a breach of this agreement a serious offence.
The right for the College Assessor to access this information is cited in the Health Professions Procedural Code under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA), ss.82. (1) (c)
Under ss. 82(2) and 82(3) of the Code, facility operators and health information custodians are required to provide access to premises and charts. This section applies despite any provision in any Act relating to confidentiality of health records (code, ss 82(5).4
Cooperation with Committee and Assessors
82. (1) Every member shall co-operate with the Quality Assurance Committee and with any assessor it appoints and in particular every member shall,
Further, the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA), clause. 9(2)(e) supports the College’s right of access and states that PHIPA is not be construed to interfere with regulatory activities of the College under the RHPA.
