Target Audience & Estimated Reading Time: HPA-OHT Membership | 3 minutes
Why it Matters
The latest results from the Health Standards Organization (HSO) Governing Body Assessment (GBA) within the Accreditation Collaborative provide critical insights into governance effectiveness across HPA-OHT member organizations. These findings guide collaborative efforts to strengthen quality, safety, and equity in care delivery.
Dig Deeper
The GBA is a tool that enables individual members of governing bodies to assess their effectiveness and reflect on how well their organization delivers safe, high-quality care. It’s a requirement of Accreditation Canada (AC) that the GBA be deployed at least once per accreditation cycle, with a response rate of 80% or higher and at least one resulting action item.
Key Highlights from the GBA
- Strong Participation: 84 of 95 governing body members responded (88%), exceeding Accreditation Canada’s benchmark
- Key Strengths Identified:
- Members have a clear understanding of their roles, the organization’s mission, vision, and values, and what quality means for their organization.
- Governing bodies receive the information needed for informed decision-making.
- Meetings are respectful, open, and constructive, with all members participating in decisions.
- Executive leaders are supported to publicly review quality and safety performance annually.
- Collaborative relationships exist between governing bodies and senior leaders.
- Opportunities for Quality Improvement:
- Increase constructive feedback from Board Chairs to individual Board Members.
- Expand education and continuous learning, especially around systemic racism and Indigenous-specific issues.
- Enhance governing bodies’ impact on addressing systemic racism and reducing the organization’s carbon footprint.
- Dedicate more meeting time to quality performance discussions.
Next Steps
The Accreditation Collaborative will use these results to prioritize improvement initiatives.
As always, Member organizations are encouraged to consider how collaborative accreditation could support their own quality and governance goals. Please reach out to HPA-OHT at oht@hpaoht.ca to learn more.