Patients' Association of Canada

May 9, 2012 - Last week we went to the Western Canada Health Information Privacy Symposium in Calgary. The participants were largely people who were in one way or another responsible for safeguarding the privacy of patients. In recent years many of the provinces have enacted Freedom of Information laws that are also meant to protect the privacy of patients. They have also appointed privacy commissioners to make sure the new laws are followed. The main reason for the laws has been the concern that there is an increased risk of breaches of privacy as health records are computerized.

May 7, 2012 - The Professional Association of Internes and Residents of Ontario (PAIRO)held its awards dinner on Friday night. They gave awards to individuals and programs for teaching and for being especially sensitive to the needs of doctors in training. This was the first time that patients were represented on the PAIRO jury so it was a big step for PAIRO and also for the Patients’ Association of Canada.

The jury process was pretty much the same as PAC’s process for the Patients’ Choice Awards. There were numerous letters of nomination that had to be read and discussed. All the nominations came from medical trainees, and the quality of the nominating letters was the most critical part of deciding who would win. Because there were many outstanding nominees, the jury debated long and hard to decide on the winners.

April 27, 2012 - In the recent past, it was difficult to get a response to our message about the importance of patient participation. Although many people agreed that patients should become more engaged in health care, there were few actual examples of that in practice and not much opportunity to participate in a meaningful way. There was also very little demand for more information.

All of that has been changing. And in fact, our message has become very desirable.

We are not sure how the change happened. We hope that it is because more people recognize that patients must participate in the system to help improve their own experience and that of everyone associated with health care. It is also now widely agreed that health care systems must improve their capacity to treat chronic conditions. And this of course means that the patient must be more actively engaged - not only in their care, but in how that care is delivered.

April 13, 2012 - At our PAC Members’ Meeting this week we tried a new exercise to gather  peoples’ thoughts about health care services. We wanted to learn about the patient experience of emergency rooms. We collected short descriptions about the current state of emergency rooms, and then we asked participants to write descriptors of an ideal emergency room (heaven) setting and a worst-case (hell) emergency room setting. We also asked what events or actions might lead to each scenario.

April 9, 2012 - By the late 1940s we knew a great deal about acute infectious diseases. We understood that these diseases could be identified by the specific microorganisms that caused them and  that they had a definite course. Further, we knew  that they were accompanied by high fever, internal shivering, pain, skin eruptions or some other acute symptoms. It was also understood that these diseases could be reduced or even eliminated if an appropriate vaccine was found that would prepare the body to fend off the microorganism.

April 2, 2012 - Our health care system has been focused on acute care since its inception however the vast majority of illness these days is chronic rather than acute. Gradually, everyone is beginning to realize that hospitals can no longer be the core of the health care system if we are to respond appropriately.

March 22, 2012 - From the Patients’ Association of Canada (PAC) we can do little but applaud yesterday’s publication by Cancer Care Ontario and Public Health Ontario of Taking Action to Prevent Chronic Disease: Recommendations for a Healthier Ontario. They have recognized that the great killers today are no longer the acute infectious diseases of yesteryear which were caused by identifiable microorganisms, but the slowly progressing chronic conditions which are affected by social and environmental factors.

March 7, 2012 - PAC’s visit to Kingston last week was a great success. We chose to visit Kingston General Hospital (KGH) because the hospital has dedicated itself to improving the patient experience through patient and family centred care. Members of our governance collaborative had a chance to meet each other and share ideas about how patients can become more active and effective as part of the decision making body in health care organizations.