Case Book: Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Planning and Improvement - Mar 2022

[Alies Maybee]

CASEBOOK_SUMMARY_FINAL.pdf
CASEBOOK_FINAL.pdf

A compilation of 40 accounts of patient and family engagement in hospital planning and improvement gathered from patient/family advisors, patient engagement managers, clinicians and corporate executives at hospitals of different types and sizes in Ontario.

Patient partners on this CIHR-funded project: Laurie Proulx, Julie McIlroy and Craig Lindsay.

Anna Gagliardi led a research team to study patient and family engagement in hospital planning and improvement. The two-year study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and led to the following published manuscripts: PMC7908767, PMC8235895, PMC8678957, and two more that are in press and under review.

This research culminated in a casebook, which offers a summary of key findings plus 40 one-page cases derived from interviews with patient/family advisor, patient engagement managers and clinicians that describe patient/family engagement in specific hospital planning and improvement projects. This resource can be used by hospitals or other healthcare organizations to inform the development or strengthening of their patient/family engagement activities. It may well have other applications; for example, as an orientation to patients/family who are thinking of getting involved.

Attached is a high-level one-page summary and the case book.

[John Shaw]

The positive feedback to the patient family advisors from the health care staff is nice to see. The staff need to hear things from the patient point of view. They are the customers and business needs customer feedback. The range of activities in which the PFAs were constructively involved is impressive.

[JoAnne Mosel]

Awesome resource! To which level of hospital administration should it be presented? Perhaps depends on size of hospital and organizational complexity.

[Alies Maybee]

JoAnne, I don't know the answer to that but think your guess is probably correct. Alies

[John Sherber]

Really appreciate seeing these documents. This is what the HC staff need to see. Projects completed with PP involved.

[Alies Maybee]

I wonder if we could pull together some case studies from the patient partner point of view. My concern is that we would need the information from the host organization to complete them. Thoughts?

[John Shaw]

If you are looking for comments on how they accepted/valued/rejected the input of patient advisors, then that should be easy. If you want details you will be asking some very busy project leads to go back and find details of what was contributed and the result. I doubt you will get many to do that.

[Denyse Lynch]

This is very good evidence for both HC and PA's to know as it should promote more effective collaboration, better outcomes. I BELIEVE it is important for PA's to know BY WHOM, TO WHOM and HOW these results are/were circulated. Sometimes research/ evidence/ results are published in journals, other documents and health providers just "happen" upon it by chance with no call to action (just an "interesting "to note). It is left up to an individual reader to take action. As PA's we know there is still much work to do in better, more effective collaborating and partnering. And we know there are lots of HC plates overflowing so perhaps not seeking more to do. Believe we could take initiative, as we know working more effectively is a time saver and satisfies our need for good outcomes.

If we, PA's knew/know: "from whom, to whom and how these results" were circulated, we could take initiative, contact individuals to whom the material was sent and discuss their thoughts in working with PA's. If positive, then we know they most likely will continue on this path. If negative experiences, there is now this new approach/tool " Evaluating Patient Engagement," we could ask if they've seen this, explain the benefits and/or share with them. The "Evaluating Patient Engagement is a very good HOW TO approach for PA & HC to learn & apply. Believe we need to set up some ZOOM or other interaction opportunities which include PA's & HC together discussing the pros/cons of this tool and seeing how we can get more traction with it. We do need to improve how PA's work with HC, and HC with PA's. Follow-through and follow-up by integrating, is key..... otherwise we're just on our own, in silos, "hoping" for improvement. That is not a motivating PLAN!

[John Sherber]

Denyse,
Thank you for your in depth thoughts about the future and suggesting we work towards solutions. Being in BC I am told by people who come here from the east we are quite a bit behind on a lot of areas in HC. Primary Care and Patient Activation.
In the Health Authority (HA) I am in (1 of 5) in the province, Patient Partners (PP) are engaged in activities more all the time. The situation demands it as the Min. of Health (MOH) says we need to have, "Patient Centered Care". We have the Patient Voices Network (PVN) that works with all of the HA's and this allows for both parties to have a process that matches them up for specific opportunities.
In our HA we have the Patient Experience (PE) team who is now working with PVN to fine tune some of the pieces that need to be looked at. For instance what you are talking about here. There are 3 PP, 3 PE, 2 PVN and one other staff member. Eventually I will be posting the report and how we will be moving forward on this in our HA on this site for comparison to how others are doing this. It has been a stellar experience creating this model with all parties included.
On a personal note I build relationships with those on the Councils I sit on meetings I go to.
In every meeting I attend and read this:
There is now an opportunity for patients to take the term "partners"to a higher level.
If care is a partnership and a partner ship is the meeting of equals what is the patient bring to the relationship?
The response has been positive. I believe each of us has the chance to affect the HC system in a positive manner albeit maybe one person at a time. PE will be working on this and sharing the info with other HA.

I would enjoy being on a call to see if we can bring some ideas forward on this subject. Does anyone have an account they can set up a meeting for?
John Sherber

[Denyse Lynch]

John - Many thanks for your response and sharing your BC experiences. Would like to follow up on this more as we learn MUCH from others' experiences and thinking. I will be back to you next week. In meantime, if other PAN members are interested in pursuing more effective partnering working with HC colleagues, please be in touch.
Thanks - Denyse Lynch