Although there is lots of talk about making measures of health system performance available to the public, the reality often falls short of the aspirations. Not only are these measures often difficult for public users to understand and access; evidence suggests that they have little impact.
OTTAWA - Two Ottawa doctors were recognized for their quality of service Thursday night. Dr. Robin Boushey and Dr. Evelyn Honsl received the first-ever patients’ choice awards. The award is jointly sponsored by the Patient’s Association of Canada and the Ontario Medical Association. Boushey is the medical director of the cancer assessment centre at the Ottawa Hospital. Honsl is a family physician with a practice on Broadview Ave.
The original article is published here.
Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's Patients' Choice Awards. We received more than 30 thoughtful nominations from patients around Ottawa and we awarded two very deserving physicians.
The winners are Dr. Evelyn Honsl and Dr. Robin Boushey.
We look forward to bringing the initiative to your community!
Friday, June 15, 2012 – Prior to the last six months, I spent a lot of time seeking out groups who were prepared to have patients join them in their discussions. Now, I have increasingly been attending meetings of groups who have, for the very first time, invited a patient representative to join them. They are now seeking out the Patients’ Association of Canada to find patient representatives to join them.
What is very interesting is how much their deliberations change once patients are in the room. They begin to recognize how little input patients have made up until now, and how patients offer a different perspective on the issues these groups face.
The second annual conference of the Patients’ Association of Canada (PAC) was a broad-based discussion of how patients could participate in guiding our health care system. There were 19 separate sessions on a wide variety of topics held throughout the day. The notes will be posted on the web site and commentary will be made available. As you read them, you’ll notice that the topics are wide ranging and full of ideas.
PAC's second conference is fast approaching! We have a great group of patients, health care professionals and board members who have registered for the event, and we're looking forward to an exciting day
For those not attending, stay connected via Twitter, #PACconf !
We'll keep you posted on progress, meaningful discussions, and we'll add some photos while we're at it.
Health & Everything Publications and the Patients' Association of Canada present a new book!
May 11, 2012 - Several weeks ago at a Patients' Association public meeting we asked members to use short phrases to describe their experiences in emergency rooms as they are today, or the current state. We then asked them to think about what the experience would be in an ideal or “heavenly†emergency room and finally we asked them to do the same for “the emergency room from hell.â€
We then transcribed their comments and made word clouds to display the frequency of the terms they used. Here are the results. Tell us what you think they mean!