Patient Engagement in On tario and Quebec

[Annette McKinnon]

Patient Engagement: The Quebec Path*

Marie-Pascale Pomey and Paule Lebel

From Longwoods.com

I was especially interested in what CFHI said about their engagement of a patient

"Another experiment conducted at a CIUSSS and funded by the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement (CFHI) helped structure patient involvement at all levels of governance of the establishment (Pomey et al. 2016). To this end, the organization recruited a patient advisor two days a week, along with a manager, to develop a reference framework for patient involvement at the strategic, tactical and operational levels, as well as tools such as a form to request patient advisor participation and learning material. This made it possible to select, train and coach patient advisors to participate in different activities during the 18 months the strategy was implemented: providing their opinion on educational material given to patients; reviewing the establishment's code of ethics and partnership evaluation tools; sharing their testimony with professionals and managers; participating in continuous quality improvement or Kaizen groups; being involved in training residents/interns (doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, pharmacists, etc.). This experience of patient involvement was greatly appreciated by both the managers and the patient advisors. It brought them back to the fundamental meaning of the patient-practitioner relationship and helped incorporate the patients' experiential knowledge into improvements in care and services. "

There's so much to read about patient engagement, and so little time to do it.

[Denyse Lynch]

Thanks Annette for this up-date which is very important for patients' to remain motivated and to eliminate the often-experienced "token perception" of patient advisers.

It is encouraging to learn patients are involved in more depth in improvement initiatives. Perhaps the culture, mind-set towards the level,depth, equal partnering with patients' who have the competencies and lived experiences within the system are shifting. Being considered a "mandatory ingredient" for developing quality improvement solutions to meet all stakeholders requirements makes this change a balanced, more comprehensive approach with less time & effort, wasted.

Very much appreciate your heads-up.

Best,

Denyse

[JoAnne Mosel]

Being in Quebec, the article interested me. It appeared to be from 2016 and I'm curious to know what has transpired since.