DQA Analytics
The essential analytical toolbox for Canadian hospitals
We provide the targeted reports and calculations Canadian hospitals rely on, continuously updated with the latest methodologies. DQA equips your Decision Support team with practical tools that streamline analysis and remove common barriers to creating high-quality insight.
Decision Support teams are often given generic BI tools and must build data models, integrate data, and create many complex calculations to make them work—an effort-intensive process that pulls time away from meaningful analysis. DQA removes these obstacles by delivering validated, pre-built calculations, reports, and analytics.
Since hospitals share similar analytical needs, we solve these challenges once, allowing Decision Support teams to focus on what’s unique to their organization. With DQA, teams can use our built-in reports or access our database of validated calculations within their own tools—whether Power BI, Tableau, or even Excel—to create custom reports and dashboards. For complex needs that require additional resources or expertise, our team is ready to tackle your toughest data challenges.
Many indicators and reporting features are already included in the DQA platform at your hospital. You will now have the ability to create new indicators on your own, or you can contact us to create new functionality on your behalf.
INCLUDED IN BASE DQA LICENSE
AVAILABLE AT ADDITIONAL CHARGE
What are the main features of the platform?
OUT-OF-THE-BOX INDICATORS
We create, verify, and manage many published indicators (e.g. HSMR, Hospital Harm, QBPs) and calculate them on behalf of our client hospitals. We update and validate them as methodologies change so you don’t need to.
RAPIDLY CREATE CUSTOM INDICATORS
DS teams are frequently asked to urgently report on cases using emerging criteria. With DQA, they only need to write the code for the indicator logic itself. The infrastructure for indicator processing, storage, and distribution is taken care of by the platform.
SELF-SERVE REPORTING
Our platform has a mature web interface to analyze visits by specifying various filters and groupings. Once the indicator logic is published, it is immediately available for analysis in this single centralized reporting platform.
INTEGRATED DATA SOURCES
Comprehensive hospital indicators require data from many HIS platforms including your EMR. We setup and manage the integration feeds to give you access to the data you need for your metrics and monitor the ongoing import data processes.
EASY TO EXPORT
All calculations are directly available to you through database views for extraction (at the individual visit level) into your own reporting/BI tools and data warehouses.
AUTOMATED PROCESSING
We provide the full infrastructure to import data and execute logic including complex scenarios such as inter-dependent calculations and ordering of processing. We also capture telemetry to monitor the health and performance of the process.
ADVANCED CASE REVIEW WORKFLOW
If you need to identify cases for detailed review (such as readmissions or visits with adverse events), we provide the workflow and field report templates to supplement the review process.
What problems do we help solve?
Over the past 15 years we’ve seen a critical increase in data reporting requirements for hospitals. Most have struggled to find ways to effectively manage these increasing data responsibilities.
Decision Support teams have become constantly overburdened and often don’t have the resources to respond to new requests from analysts, clinicians, and hospital leadership. Common problems include:
Many indicators are so complex that they are prohibitively expensive to develop and maintain as methodologies change. It’s also difficult for DS teams to avoid errors as there are often no test files from the methodology providers to validate calculations.
A full library of metrics requires data from many systems. This often leads to the creation of ad-hoc databases of duplicated data, often managed by separate disconnected teams. This often leads to significant ongoing code maintenance problems, particularly when developers leave the organization.
Publishing metrics for users is problematic, as is change management. It’s common for hospitals to create and maintain hundreds of separate reports for specific purposes rather than managing reporting and analytics through a centralized framework.
Creating reports based on multiple calculated criteria (such as when creating complex patient cohorts) is often impossible due to decentralization of the logic and data. Manually stitching data together is common which hampers analysis, research, and operational improvement efforts.
Indicator Roadmap - Included in Base DQA License
| Funded Volumes | |
| Medical Quality Based Procedures (QBPs) (such as Pneumonia, Congestive Heart Failure, COPD, Stroke, etc.) |
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| Surgical Quality Based Procedures (QBPs) (such as Hip and Knee Replacements, Degenerative Shoulders, Aortic Aneurysm, etc.) |
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| Cancer Surgery QBPs (identified surgical site, such as Abdominal, Gastric, Thoracic, etc.) |
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| GI Endoscopies including Excisions (OH-specified for DAD and NACRS) |
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| Cardiac Procedures (for DAD and NACRS, previously reported on Corhealth data) |
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| WT Funded Volumes – Adult Orthopaedic Surgery (including Hip and Knee Revisions) |
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| WT Funded Volumes – Adult General Surgery (including Anorectal Surgery, Intestinal Surgery, Cholecystectomy, and Hernia Repair) |
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| WT Funded Volumes – Paediatric (Dental/Oral Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery, Ophthalmology Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Urology Surgery) |
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| Metal Stents (All anatomical sites) |
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| Endobronchial Ultrasound (EBUS) Procedures | |
| Kidney Transplants (Reported Volumes) |
| Quality Indicators | |
| Hospital Standardized Mortality (HSMR) (including calculation of CIHI-defined probability of mortality) |
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| Hospital Harm Measure (identified by the 31 CIHI/CPSI-defined clinical groups within Health Care Associated Conditions, Infections, Patient Accidents, and Procedure-Associated Conditions) |
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| Emergency Department Return Visits (Mental Health and all-cause) |
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| Charlson Index | |
| Central Line Infection Rate | |
| Rate of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia | |
| 30 Day Patient Readmission Indicators (CIHI defined for Medical, Surgical, Paeds, Obstetrics) |
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| Readmission To Own Facility Within 30 Days (Selected HIG Conditions) |
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| PRIORITY CASE REVIEW | |
| Low Probability HSMR Deaths | |
| Low-Risk Caesarean Sections | |
| In-Hospital Sepsis | |
| Cochlear Implants | |
| Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Treatment Clinics | |
| Obstetric Trauma | |
| Hip Fracture Surgery Within 48 Hours | |
| Hospital Deaths Following Major Surgery (30 days) |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Is this a separate platform or is it part of DQA?
It is a part of the DQA platform. Several advanced features are licensed as a separate optional module.
What if I have an idea for an indicator that would benefit all hospitals? Does the hospital still need to pay?
We’re always looking for new indicators that provide value! Please send the indicator to us with full specifications. Upon review, our team will decide whether or not it is appropriate for inclusion in the base platform roadmap that is included in the standard licensing.
How does the individual case review workflow work?
We have implemented a framework that allows developers to rapidly develop custom forms (such as Physician eQueries or Field Reports). Authorized users may launch a workflow for any given case and send it to other users for review and approvals. These forms include features such as configurable dropdowns and custom validation rules.
Is it possible to do analysis on cases that narrowly missed qualifying for a protocol or specification?
Yes, this is a common request. As an example, we do this for our near-miss module where factors such as intervention positioning or insurance status affect procedure qualification criteria. If you send us your requirements we can provide a quote on implementation.
If we purchase services to create a custom indicator, will it be released to everyone for free?
If the specifications are publicly available then yes, they will be made available to all DQA platform subscribers. Otherwise, the indicator definition will remain private to your hospital. Part of the value we bring to the entire hospital ecosystem is to share development costs across all hospitals. So while you may purchase some indicators, you will also benefit from the purchases of indicators from other hospitals
Please contact us if you have any questions or would like a demo of our platform.
