The Quality Matrix creates a common understanding about quality for everyone who works within the healthcare system. The Quality Matrix has two components:
- Dimensions of quality, which focus on aspects of the patient/client experience.
- Areas of need, which divides the range of services provided by the health system into four distinct, but related, categories.
The Quality Matrix enables the public, patients, providers, and organizations to see how levels of quality and areas of need might intersect. It has been used in numerous ways, including policy development, strategic and service planning, and as a way to educate the public about quality in healthcare.
The Matrix has evolved
After person-centred care was added to our legislated mandate in 2020, we examined person-centred care and healthcare quality across the literature and through engagement with numerous health system partners and peers. We also began a process to review and update the dimensions of quality in the Matrix. A new Framework for an Integrated People-centred Healthcare System grew out of these efforts.
The Framework for an Integrated People-centred Healthcare System, still in progress, is an updated replacement for the Matrix that adopts a whole-system approach to improvement and that will better meet the broader needs of individuals and organizations working to improve quality in Alberta’s healthcare system. The framework builds on the dimensions of quality described in the Matrix, defining expectations within a people-centred healthcare system, and positioning them among interconnected gears of change management: a vision, aims, enablers, and shared commitments.
The HQCA is currently engaging with system partners to complete the Framework.
