Dennis Jang

The Everyday Champion Quality Award captures the story of someone working in the health system who has improved the quality of care provided to patients, even though he or she may not have a formal leadership role in quality improvement.

Dispensing chemotherapy is a complex process that requires coordination at many steps.  Unnecessary delays add to wait times and create a frustrating process for patients who often spend a significant amount of time attending medical appointments while facing limited life expectancies. Dennis is responsible for ensuring that medications are supplied in a safe, appropriate and timely fashion for patients.

Facing an increasing patient population and limited resources, Dennis led a team that looked to speed up the delivery of charts for patients being treated on intravenous chemotherapy to the pharmacy. In only a few months, the number of charts that met the team’s delivery time standard almost doubled. Dennis also implemented a program called “Daily Management,” which involves a quick team huddle to review the previous day’s work and look for process improvement.

Dennis has committed to taking the LEAN training program to become a facilitator so that he can help the department become more efficient and safe. His commitment to continuous improvement goes well beyond what is required of his position.

This was the first time that the Everyday Champion category a Quality Award category. It featured online voting, so that anyone could vote online for their “Everyday Champion” from January 15 to February 4. More than 1800 votes were cast and Dennis received the most votes, making him BC’s 2012 Everyday Quality Champion.