In 2020, the Ontario Chiropractic Association (OCA) formed the Evidence-based Framework Advisory Council with a mandate to help develop a shared understanding or framework around what exactly evidence-based practice means for chiropractic care. In this episode, we check in with Caroline Brereton, OCA's CEO, to hear about the Evidence-based Framework Advisory Council (EBFAC), its goals, the process it’s following, how it will help OCA members support better patient care and advance the profession. Caroline chats about the EBFAC’s progress, what to look for in the near future and what its long-term goals entail.
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About Caroline Brereton:
Caroline is CEO of the Ontario Chiropractic Association and oversees the Evidence-based Framework Advisory Council (EBFAC).
Through working for 18 years on acute care’s front-line to now leading the fourth largest chiropractic association in the world by membership, she has lived varied perspectives of our health care system.
Her passion for quality patient care in Ontario began in 1992 with her work as a registered nurse caring for elderly patients with complex needs at Queensway General Hospital, in Toronto’s west end.
As Caroline's career evolved, she moved to Trillium Health Centre (now Trillium Health Partners) in 1998, where she held several senior level positions, from Director, Medical Health Systems, to Vice President, People, Corporate and Clinical Support Services. At Trillium, she applied a new leadership philosophy and accountability framework to initiate customer service models that improved patients’ experience and outcomes. Caroline was also honoured to lead the implementation of the University of Toronto’s Mississauga Medical Academy and the Shared Service West Organization transformation, on behalf of four organizations.
In addition to her nursing and midwifery credentials, Ms. Brereton has an MBA from Queen’s University and is a graduate of the Rotman School of Management Advanced Health Leadership Program.
Since joining the Ontario Chiropractic Association (OCA) as CEO in June 2018, she has focused on building relationships with all partners that impact chiropractors and their patients in Ontario. Caroline is committed to ensuring the OCA is making a difference for its members and supporting others in their accountabilities to the profession.
In her previous tenure as Chief Executive Officer of the Mississauga Halton Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) and Vice Chair of the Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres (OACCAC) Board of Directors, she collaborated with multiple partners to help drive our system’s transformation to integrated, patient-centred care.
Caroline was inspired by the initiatives CCAC's interconnected teams implemented to improve patients’ experience and outcomes. These initiatives ranged from a primary care advisor model that achieved a 76 per cent engagement rate with primary care providers across the region to our seamless transitions hospital partnership that reduced the number of patients returning to hospital within 30-days after discharge by 52 per cent.
Delivering home and community care every day gave her and the CCAC a front-line advantage. It showed what works and what is vital to our health care system. These experiences opened Caroline's eyes to our system’s potential.
Caroline is excited by the possibility of creating a world-class, fully integrated health system in Ontario and potentially across Canada. Like many health care leaders, Caroline is also constantly thinking about ‘how’ to best achieve this for Ontarians.
She believes all health care partners must share their insights and work together, hand in glove, to shape a system that overcomes long-term challenges and continuously raises the bar for quality of care.
In addition to her OCA role, Caroline is also a Board member of the Regional Geriatric Program of Toronto.
