How can we engage patients more?
We’ve received a thoughtful question about engaging patients in their care. It’s a question about how we can provide best care and, as you’ll read, the answers can sometimes help us increase our capacity for care within our funding envelope. For earlier answers, read our September 12 article and previously published submissions to VCH News-Vancouver.
To learn more about our plans and direction; consult our interactive Vancouver Strategic Plan.
If you have a question about delivering quality health care services while tackling our budget challenge, we encourage you to email VancouverAll-StaffForum@vch.ca. We welcome your questions.
Today’s answered question
Q. We state confidently on our patient information material in the hospital that patients have the right to have information about their condition and be the primary decision makers for their health care. What can we do as an organization to make sure that all patients who can have the opportunity to be completely engaged in their health care decisions?
A. Quality health care, as you rightly point out, is a two-way street. It’s best achieved when patients/clients/residents and their loved ones, become partners in care with us, and our respective expectations and responsibilities are outlined in the VCH “Partners in Care” declaration. How we achieve engagement also depends on the context and people involved.
Providing quality, patient-centred care requires listening and sometimes formalized engagement through stakeholder groups. For example, VCH created a new position last year to support and facilitate patient and family involvement within tertiary mental health services programs. In this role Sharon Marmion consults with and advocates on behalf of patients and families. She also works with clinical staff to develop plans reflective of patient and family goals.
At VGH and UBCH, we’re engaging in-hospital patients with our award-winning model of care: iCARE & ITH (Ideal Transition Home). Patients are actively engaged throughout their journey of in-hospital care and, most notably, provided the information, tools and peace of mind to make a successful transition home. We help remove barriers to discharge and teach patients about the signs and symptoms of their condition. Each patient/family is provided a personalized My Discharge Plan, which outlines next steps and contacts for care in the community to help prevent unnecessary readmission. All VGH and UBCH medicine units now use iCARE & ITH and, as a result, we’ve enhanced the patient’s journey of care and opened 40 medicine beds per day. Today, we’re introducing this model of care to our surgical units.
One area where our own president and CEO Dr. Ostrow believes everyone — patients, families, physicians and caregivers — should be more engaged is advance care planning. Discussing and planning for end of life isn’t comfortable, but is yet another and very important example of how we can facilitate engagement and support patients in making the best decisions for themselves and for their loved ones. For more on advance care planning, read Dr. Ostrow’s July 24, 2013 blog and his September 18, 2013 blog.