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Celebrating Canadian Patient Safety Week 2025

With a mandate to improve patient safety, person-centred care, and health service quality on a province-wide basis, the Health Quality Alberta team was excited to participate in the 2025 Canadian Patient Safety Week. 

Canadian Patient Safety Week is an annual week-long campaign led by Healthcare Excellence Canada that brings people together around a shared goal: making healthcare safer for everyone. The 2025 theme was “All Voices for Safer Care” and ran from October 27-31.

Taking inspiration from Healthcare Excellence Canada’s I see safer care in action when … campaign activity, we shared our own version on our LinkedIn channel throughout the week. “This was an opportunity to highlight Health Quality Alberta’s commitment to improving patient safety by showcasing the many resources and people bringing it to life,” says Ioana Popescu, Lead, Health System Improvement.

Some of the resources highlighted include:

Shared below are some of our posts featuring friendly Health Quality Alberta faces.

New Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer announcements at Health Quality Alberta

Angus Watt has been designated by Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange as Chair of the Health Quality Alberta Board of Directors, effective October 1, 2025. Mr. Watt served on the executive committee since joining the Board in June 2024 and has been Acting Chair since August 2025.

Mr. Watt is a senior wealth advisor, National Bank Financial, and founding partner of the Angus
Watt Advisory Group. For more than 40 years he has served Albertans as a community builder,
volunteer, and philanthropist across multiple sectors, including health and social services.

In 2023, he was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence and as a laureate into the Junior
Achievement Business Hall of Fame. He is a past recipient of the “Paul Harris Fellow” awarded
by the Rotary Club of Canada. In 2012, Mr. Watt received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and in 2023, he received the Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee Medal.

Mr. Watt’s considerable history leading and supporting many causes, as well as his long career
as a respected senior business leader, are an asset to Health Quality Alberta as the
organization grows its contributions to health system improvement.

Permanent Chief Executive Officer named

On behalf of the Board of Directors, Mr. Watt is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr.
David Zygun as Chief Executive Officer for Health Quality Alberta, effective October 1, 2025. Dr.
Zygun’s appointment follows a formal executive search and selection process. He has been
Acting Chief Executive Officer since May 2025.

“Dr. Zygun has extensive clinical, academic, and leadership experience in Alberta’s healthcare
system. In addition to his many accomplishments, he brings a passion for improving healthcare
quality, listening to patients, and collaborating with healthcare partners that effectively positions
him to help Health Quality Alberta deliver on its mandate,” says Mr. Watt.

“During his time serving as Acting CEO, Dr. Zygun has demonstrated his expertise by leading
the organization through critical conversations with key healthcare partners on the role of Health
Quality Alberta in the refocused healthcare system in Alberta, the launch of the Alberta Quality
Dimensions for Health to guide system improvement, as well as the introduction of the new
Health Quality Alberta name,” adds Mr. Watt.

Dr. Zygun is a neurocritical care physician and was also a professor and past first chair of the
Department of Critical Care Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of
Alberta. He previously served as the Zone Medical Director for the Edmonton Zone, Alberta
Health Services (AHS) and held other leadership roles at AHS including Acting Associate Chief
Medical Officer of Strategic Clinical Networks (SCNs), Senior Medical Director of the Critical
Care SCN, and Zone Clinical Department Head of Adult Critical Care, Edmonton Zone.

Albertans share their experiences with home and community care

We have released results from our 2024 Home Care Client Experience Survey.

The provincial survey report and a summary document are publicly available online at www.hqa.ca/homecare

The survey reached out to more home and community care clients than ever before, capturing the voices of 10,690of a possible 27,808 individuals who rely on various home care services in Alberta – a 38 per cent response rate. 

“Listening to those who receive care is an invaluable tool to gain insight into what we can do to ensure quality care for all in Alberta,” says Dr. David Zygun, CEO, Health Quality Alberta. “These results can help providers identify and address issues to enhance service delivery.”

Key opportunities for improvement shared by home and community care clients include:

  • Clients want to have the same staff to develop trusting relationships and to have care consistency.
  • Clients need to understand and be understood by their team to participate as partners in their care.
  • Clients identified opportunities to enhance people-centred care and attend to social determinants of health, which include unmet service needs beyond those offered by home and community care.

The survey results reveal many strengths to the home and community care program in Alberta, as well as opportunities to improve overall client experience.

In the report, the Overall Care Rating is the measure of overall client experience. Over half of clients (55 per cent) rated their overall home and community care experience as great (9 or 10 out of 10), 41 per cent reported their overall experience as mediocre (5 – 8 out of 10) and 4 per cent as unacceptable (0 – 4 out of 10).

Clients who live in rural locations reported having more positive experiences with home and community care than those who live in urban locations (e.g., Red Deer, Lethbridge), and in the metro locations of Calgary and Edmonton.

Health Quality Alberta actively engages with government, organizational leadership and teams, and offices of home and community care about the survey results and recommendations for improvement. Teams who provide home and community care also received tailored reports specific to input from their clients. These reports can be used for ongoing quality improvement.

“The survey results highlight that home and community care is a partnership. All involved hold responsibility to contribute to its ongoing improvement,” adds Dr. Zygun. “The information in the report can be used by decision-makers, leaders, and providers of home and community to inform improvements. Individuals who rely on home and community care services, and their caregivers may also use this information to facilitate conversations with their home and community care provider, case manager, or staff.”

Health Quality Alberta conducted this survey between April and September 2024 in collaboration with Alberta Health – including members from the Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services and Alberta Health Services.

Home and community care includes publicly funded professional health and personal care services that help clients live safely and independently in their own homes or communities. Settings where clients receive care are diverse, ranging from a private residence, seniors lodge, community clinic, or adult day program. Services may be received for short-term or long-term durations.

Renewed definition of healthcare quality replaces Quality Matrix

Health Quality Alberta has released a renewed, evidence-based definition for healthcare quality, marking the first update to this important concept in nearly 20 years. The definition includes seven dimensions of quality: people-centred, accessible and timely, safe, equitable, integrated, effective, and efficient and sustainable. 

The updated dimensions replace the definition of quality that was first introduced with the Alberta Quality Matrix for Health in 2005. Important changes include adding the dimensions of people-centred and equitable, for example, and expanding the meaning of ‘safe care’ to include all forms of safety – not just physical, but also cultural and data-related, to name just two.

“How we define quality healthcare is the very foundation of everything else we do in planning and delivering healthcare services,” says Dr. David Zygun, acting chief executive officer of Health Quality Alberta. “The definition of quality guides decision-making and delivery of care. When we agree on what quality care looks like, we are more likely to be aligned on how to fund, plan, measure, and deliver quality care across the system.”  

The dimensions can be applied at system, organizational, and care-delivery levels, serving as a benchmark, informing policy, strategy, and design for the system, and giving organizations and teams a common language that shifts thinking and practice toward integrated people-centred care. 

The dimensions act as a lens through which people’s experience in the healthcare system can be viewed. They guide the user in reflecting on people’s needs and how care should be experienced by people. Thinking about each dimension creates awareness of quality in service delivery and, when supplemented by measures, can reveal opportunities for system and quality improvement.

This update brings together input from system partners across Alberta, patient advisors, and communities, along with insights from leading frameworks in use within and beyond Alberta and Canada.

Download the new resource – Alberta Quality Dimensions for Health – here.

2025 Patient Experience Award winners model collaboration and person-centred care

Four teams are being recognized today by the Health Quality Council of Alberta for improving the patient and family experience across a range of services – including diabetes care, chronic pain management, music therapy, and transitioning from hospital to home.

“This year’s recipients demonstrated ways of working and listening that show how the patient and family voice can improve the healthcare system,” notes Medgine Mathurin, Chair of the Health Quality Council of Alberta’s Patient and Family Advisory Committee and a judge of the awards. “We hope they will be an inspiration for others in the healthcare system.”

The Patient Experience Awards program was established by the Health Quality Council of Alberta and its Patient and Family Advisory Committee in 2015 to recognize and spread knowledge about initiatives that improve the patient’s overall experience in accessing or receiving healthcare services. Aspects of patient experience include relationships, and how patients and families are treated; delivery of services to be person-centred, safe, timely, and effective; planning of services, such that patients and families are treated as partners; and a clean, safe, and inviting physical environment that supports healing and the efficient delivery of services.

Submissions are evaluated in a rigorous two-part process in which applicants describe the challenge they were trying to solve, their solution and how they identified it, the impact it has had, and the degree to which their solution can be scaled up and spread to others.

“The teams being recognized model collaboration and ways of working across the system that can support integration,” explains Charlene McBrien-Morrison, Chief Executive Officer of the Health Quality Council of Alberta. “Each of these teams listened to the needs and preferences of patients, took action to improve, and empowered patients and families in the process. This is at the heart of person-centred care.”

Read about the 2025 recipients here.

The Health Quality Council of Alberta helps validate findings in new compassion study

We are proud to play a role in a new study published in the online journal, BMC Emergency Medicine, that identifies compassion as the greatest predictor of patients’ overall quality ratings, surpassing other traditional factors such as wait times, clinical communication, and pain and symptom management.

The Health Quality Council of Alberta in partnership with University of Calgary Nursing professor and director of the Compassion Research Lab Dr. Shane Sinclair, PhD, and Innovate Calgary, completed a large study measuring the impact of compassion in the 14 busiest provincial emergency departments.

Compassion was measured using the SCQ (Sinclair Compassion Questionnaire), a valid and reliable tool developed by Sinclair and his team which includes University of Calgary Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts doctoral candidate Harrison Boss, and Dr. Cara MacInnis, adjunct associate professor, University of Calgary and professor, Acadia University.

The study participants were surveyed shortly after being discharged from the ED where 50 per cent of them went home and 50 per cent were admitted to hospital. They all completed a version of the Emergency Department Patient Experience of Care survey by the Health Quality Council of Alberta along with 15 additional questions from the SCQ.

“This work has not only advanced our understanding of compassion but also affirmed it as a key indicator of health service quality and people-centred care,” says Markus Lahtinen, the Health Quality Council of Alberta’s senior director of health system analytics. 

“Measuring compassion fosters a more empathetic and supportive environment, which can enhance the overall quality of care provided. As well, quantifying compassion helps identify areas for improvement, ensuring that health-care professionals maintain high standards of patient interaction and emotional support.”

Part of the the Health Quality Council of Alberta’s mandate is to assess and report on patient-reported experiences with healthcare services in Alberta, for the purposes of quality improvement. Going forward, our survey tools will now include, where appropriate, the Sinclair compassion questions as an important measure of patient experience, a critical aspect of our overall assessment of healthcare quality in Alberta.

Why should your clinic conduct a patient experience survey?

We asked this question to Dr. Maria J. Santana, a health services researcher, Associate Professor in the departments of Pediatrics and Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. She is the provincial director, Patient Engagement for the Alberta Strategy for Patient-oriented Research.

Here’s what she had to say:

“To provide personalized care, patients should receive care that is important to them – that addresses their values, needs and preferences. This patient-centred care model needs to be measured; as what we don’t measure, we can’t change. To do so, healthcare systems need valid and reliable measures to understand what matters to patients, this includes patient experience measures.”

“The Health Quality Council of Alberta’s Primary Care Patient Experience Survey is a valid, evidence-based, and patient-informed measurement tool. The implementation of the Health Quality Council of Alberta’s survey in primary care will benefit not only quality improvement activities but will also allow care providers to be able to respond to what matters most to patients.”

“It’s important to highlight the support that the Health Quality Council of Alberta provides in administering this survey in primary care across Alberta, minimizing the time and resources primary care clinics needs to do this critical work.”

For more information about the Primary Care Patient Experience Survey and details on how to get started at your clinic…
Visit Surveying Patients About Primary Care Experience or email surveys@hqa.ca.

2024 Patient Experience Award winners support patients through different life and health challenges

Four teams are being recognized today by the Health Quality Council of Alberta for improving the patient and family experience across a range of services – including kidney disease, recovery from addiction, and women’s reproductive health.

“This year’s recipients are an exceptional group of providers who have shown a commitment to continually improving patient and family experiences,” notes Medgine Mathurin, Chair of the Health Quality Council of Alberta’s Patient and Family Advisory Committee and a judge of the awards. “We believe they can inspire others in the healthcare system.”

The Patient Experience Awards program was established by the Health Quality Council of Alberta and its Patient and Family Advisory Committee in 2015 to recognize and spread knowledge about initiatives that improve the patient’s overall experience in accessing or receiving healthcare services. Aspects of patient experience include relationships, and how patients and families are treated; delivery of services to be person-centred, safe, timely, and effective; planning of services, such that patients and families are treated as partners; and a clean, safe, and inviting physical environment that supports healing and the efficient delivery of services.

Submissions are evaluated in a rigorous two-part process in which applicants describe the challenge they were trying to solve, their solution and how they identified it, the impact it has had, and the degree to which their solution can be scaled up and spread to others.

“We’re not looking at what kind of service they provide per se, or to whom, but rather how and where they provide it such that it demonstrates a measurably better experience for patients,” explains Charlene McBrien-Morrison, Chief Executive Officer of the Health Quality Council of Alberta. “In that sense, these teams can provide a model for others that may be serving an entirely different patient population.”

Read about the 2024 recipients here.

2023 Patient Experience Award recipients support Albertans through different life stages and health challenges

June 27, 2023

Today, the Health Quality Council of Alberta honours healthcare organizations and professionals for improving the patient and family experience across a range of services – from neonatal intensive care through enhancing quality of life for people with incurable cancer.

“This year’s recipients are an exceptional group of providers that have shown a commitment to continually improving patient and family experiences,” notes Sue Peters, Chair of the Health Quality Council of Alberta’s Patient and Family Advisory Committee and a member of the final selection panel. “Whether it’s caring for preterm infants or children with feeding disorders, assisting Indigenous Peoples in navigating complex health systems, or improving support to people with advanced cancer, these programs are inspirational.”

“Particularly when you consider the pressures on the healthcare system, each of these initiatives deserves to be celebrated as examples for others,” adds Charlene McBrien-Morrison, Chief Executive Officer of the Health Quality Council of Alberta.

Read about the 2023 recipients here.

Read our news release.

The Health Quality Council of Alberta announces new Board Chair

We are pleased to announce Jacquelyn Colville has been appointed as the new Board Chair for the Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA), effective May 21, 2023.

Jacquelyn Colville was first appointed to the Health Quality Council of Alberta Board in April 2021. She previously served as an external member of the board from 2017 to 2021, and was the Chair of the Audit & Finance Committee. She is an experienced executive and also a leader in the community, having served on a number of boards working to improve the health and well-being of Albertans. Ms. Colville holds the ICD.D designation and is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA).

The Health Quality Council of Alberta looks forward to continuing to work with Ms. Colville, as she supports our mandate to improve patient safety, person-centred care, and health service quality across the province.

A sincere thank you to Brent Windwick, who has served on the Health Quality Council of Alberta Board as Chair since January 2020.

Learn more about Ms. Colville and the rest of the Health Quality Council of Alberta Board of Directors.