For people who sustain a spinal cord injury, the type of treatment and care they receive in the following days, weeks and months after their injury occurs is critical in determining their long-term outcomes.
Creating SCI Standard in Care
In 2012, Praxis partnered with Accreditation Canada—the preeminent healthcare accreditation body in Canada—to develop the first comprehensive acute and rehabilitation Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Standards in Canada. Health standards and assessment programs provide value by assessing quality and safety of health systems and facilitating health system improvements through provision of evidenced-informed resources and tools. They serve to reduce unintended variation in care, so Canadians can have equitable access to quality care regardless of where they live.
Taking a Value-Based, Person-Centered Approach
In 2019, to further enhance the SCI Standard and accreditation process, Praxis embarked on the next phase of accreditation with the Health Standards Organization (HSO), the sister organization of Accreditation Canada. This resulted in the development of the CAN/HSO S3402:2024 (E) Integrated People-Centred Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program. We are consolidating and updating the two previous SCI guidelines into a single framework .
This new standard focuses on the delivery of people-centred care by teams working in an integrated SCI rehabilitation program. This helps ensure that people living with SCI receive safe, reliable, high-quality, people-centred care, across the SCI continuum of care, that is based on their goals, needs and preferences.
The standard was based on findings from literature reviews, clinical expertise, evidence-informed practices and lived experiences. Part I of the initiative, Setting the Foundation for a Spinal Cord Injury Patient Journey Assessment Program, focused on learning from individuals living with SCI, family members and caregivers, health care providers, researchers, hospital administrators, healthcare decision makers and community organization representatives from across the country. It identified opportunities to enhance the SCI Standard to better meet the holistic needs of individuals living with SCI by describing the current experience care and the potential gaps of the current SCI Standard.
To gain a deeper understanding of people’s experiences transitioning out of the hospital and/or rehabilitation settings and back into their communities, an experience map for people living with SCI, “The Journey from In-Patient Rehab to Home and Community,” was created in collaboration with the HSO using a photovoice [AK2] methodology. This identified key goals and needs, challenges and barriers, and recommendations for improving the overall experience of transitioning back to community living.
The experience map was co-designed by persons with lived experience of SCI and outlines their experiences in the first 18 months after leaving rehab and returning to their home or community. To learn more about the findings, please read the “Insights Report Hearing from People with Lived Experience of Spinal Cord Injury.”
Helping Hospitals Get Accredited
Praxis continues to work collaboratively with the HSO and Accreditation Canada to promote the use of SCI Standard across Canada. This ongoing commitment and uptake from acute and rehabilitation hospitals has resulted in their broad adoption, with many centres successfully fulfilling the SCI Standard using the Qmentum Accreditation Program. Hospitals are now able to adopt the new SCI Standard and start to integrate them into their accreditation processes.
Download a free copy of the HSO SCI Standard.
Existing Accreditation Canada clients are encouraged to access the assessment standards through their client portal and connect with their local accreditation site leads to explore how to integrate the new standard into their current accreditation cycle.
Find out about the accreditation process and connect with an accreditation advisor
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