Yesterday, the first ever meeting of Patient and Family Advisers (PFAs) was held at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto. Patient and Family Advisers from Thunder Bay to Halifax were there to get to know each other and work on issues that they felt strongly about. Everyone there wanted to build a strong national network of advisers in order to bring a helpful patient and family voice to healthcare.
There were many reports of successes. Patient partnerships have achieved important results in everything from dramatic increases in the rate of hand washing to greater continuity of care. We now know that patient partnerships of this kind are connected to better outcomes and higher levels of patient and staff satisfaction. Carefully established Patient and Family Advisory Councils and patient participation on critical hospital committees has been able to effect these and other significant changes.
Representatives came from such flagship institutions as Kingston General Hospital, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. These organizations have well developed patient and family councils, and they shared valuable tips with advisers from other organizations who are just getting started. They explained the selection and orientation procedures for new PFAs in their organizations, and how important preparation and training is for the adviser role. Even well-experienced advisers said they received plenty of insight for even better ways to engage with their organizations as PFAs.
Those present recognized that there remain obstacles to full patient and family participation. Some hospitals continue to limit or completely exclude patient and family membership on significant hospital committees. In others, professional rivalries make it difficult to hear the patient perspective on critical issues. And in some, the excuse of economic constraints keeps patients and families away from the decision making table. The group pondered ways of overcoming these obstacles and considered the kind of orientation that would better prepare patients and families to participate in healthcare.
Everyone present agreed that more conferences like this one are needed, and some advisers formed a planning committee to hold the next meeting in six to nine months time. They also agreed that building this community of patient and family advisers was a good thing, and that they would look to the Patients’ Association to develop a peer to peer network to help advisers support each other.
We look forward to the steady growth of this community of Patient and Family Advisers and are happy to support their efforts in whatever way we can.