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Queen’s assistant professor Karen Hall Barber (Family Medicine) and physician lead of the department’s multidisciplinary Queen’s Family Health Team (QFHT) recently received an honour from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for her dedication to health care quality and safety.

Dr. Hall Barber landed on the Honour Roll – Individual Champion – in the 2014 Minister’s Medal Honouring Excellence in Health Quality and Safety program.

“It is very humbling to receive this honour, especially having been nominated by my peers whom I hold in such high regard,” she says. “Working with this terrific team is such an inspirational journey. The group comprises incredibly dedicated, creative and indefatigable individuals utterly committed to fostering a health care learning environment that delivers collaborative, high-calibre and patient-centred primary care.”

The award honours those who drive change in the province’s health-care systems and promote higher-quality care delivery that places patients at the centre of their circle of care. One of Dr. Hall Barber’s greatest contributions to the QFHT is establishing collaboration as a core principle of improving care. She was instrumental in developing partnerships outside of the family health team, helping to co-chair a committee of local primary care leaders that was committed to working together to address quality issues, as well as developing shared projects with local hospital partners and KFL&A Public Health.

“Dr. Hall Barber, who has developed a unique quality-improvement plan that has received widespread attention, is a key leader in our department. Her leadership, which motivates everyone to contribute, has brought tangible results in our clinical operation,” says Glenn Brown, Head, Department of Family Medicine. “Her approach has driven a high level of excellence in all aspects of our department's clinical care, and this has been accomplished in a scholarly manner and has been widely shared across Ontario.”