Clinical and Quality Standards

Developed in collaboration with patients, physicians, nurses, other clinicians, care partners, and organizations across the province, quality standards are intended to achieve four main goals. The goals are to help:

• Patients, families and care partners know what to ask for in their care 
• Health clinicians know what care they should offer, based on the best available evidence and expert consensus
• Health care organizations and professionals measure, assess, and improve their performance in caring for patients 
• Health services planners create the environment for clinicians and health care organizations to deliver high-quality care

Search our library to view all quality standards.

Quality standards are designed to improve care in Ontario and target priority areas in need of improvement. With their associated tools and resources to support implementation, quality standards provide the blueprint to enable the health care system in Ontario to work better, facilitate smooth transitions, and ensure patients receive the same high-quality care, regardless of where they reside.

Supporting Documents

Getting started guide
Quality improvement tools and resources for health care professionals, including an action plan template.

Measurement guide
Supplementary information to support the data collection and measurement process.

Get Mainpro+ Credits

Attention, family phyiscians: Through the Understanding Quality Standards in Primary Care Program, you can now receive Mainpro+ credits for the quality standards you read. Just read a quality standard and then complete a simple self-reflection exercise and submit for your credits. This one-credit-per-hour self-learning program has been certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Ontario Chapter for up to 63.0 credits.

Note: Some quality standards are not eligible for Mainpro+ credits because they are not written for a primary care audience.

Questions? Please email UnderstandQS@ontariohealth.ca.

Guidance Documents

On occasion, we create guidance documents meant for clinicians or the general public that are separate from our quality standards.