Guest Post: Engaging Patients Early and Often Leads to Better Healthcare Jan. 13, 2017 Guest Post, BCPSQC, Engagement

Guest Post:Engaging Patients Early and Often Leads to Better Healthcare 

Everyone wants our health care system to provide good quality services, at the right time and place.  Patients, like health care providers, have a vested interest in improving health care services, both as an end user and taxpayer.  Engaging those patients to work alongside health care providers to improve the system is called “Patient Engagement”. 

Patient engagement at its absolute best demonstrates the partnership between health care providers and patients to co-design and implement quality improvement projects, make decisions and develop on-going relationships towards quality care.  At its worst, patient engagement are poorly defined projects or committees, without clearly defined roles, that lead to confusion and a lack of progress towards improvements.  This lack of planning and clarity can increase the frustration of patients with both health care providers and the system itself.  Sometimes, it’s referred to as a “token patient engagement”. 

It is a foundational part of Patient Engagement to first acknowledge your own biases about interacting with patients in a non-direct care way.  Do you see the patients’ ability to use their experiences to help provide guidance to quality improvement?  Are you willing to speak with colleagues about the importance of including the patients’ voice in the work that you are doing?  A great attitudes checklist to start can be found at the Institute for Patient and Family-Centred Care.

To be effective in partnering with patients; identifying the goals, aims and purposes of engaging patients sets the tone for moving forward.  By taking the time to plan out your goals, you create an environment for your initiative to be successful.  That clarity of purpose makes it easy for patients to know what role they play and reduces the possibility of confusion down the road.  Engaging patients early and often builds trust and establishes clear communication towards common goals.

There are many tools and resources, as well as assistance available from the Patient and Public Engagement Team at the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council.  Please refer to patientvoicesbc.ca for more information.

Jami Brown, Engagement Leader Fraser Valley, BC Patient Safety & Quality Council 

      

Jami joined the Patient Voices Network in February 2016, bringing her passion for engaging people to her role as an Engagement Leader for the Fraser Valley Region. Prior to joining the Network, she led the communications and engagement strategy for the largest provider of seniors housing in British Columbia, Retirement Concepts. Before that, she spent 10 years at Fraser Health leading a multidisciplinary team focused on creating healthier communities.

Throughout her career, Jami has used her enthusiasm and experience to create cutting-edge partnerships alongside health care providers, the public, government leaders and community stakeholders. These partnerships increased collaboration and a shared responsibility for better health across British Columbia.

Some of the cities and communities in Jami’s area are Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Surrey, Delta, Langley, White Rock, Abbotsford, Mission, Chilliwack, Harrison, Agassiz, Hope, Boston Bar, and Anmore-Belcarra. She has worked with health care partners such as Fraser Health, Peace Arch Hospital and Delta Hospital.