Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, identify and track goals that are important to an organization. At the Patients’ Association of Canada we are determined to develop such KPIs from a patient and family perspective. These indicators will help us measure the extent to which an organization achieves its goal of being patient and family-centred.
Many providers of care are beginning to take it upon themselves to consider the patient perspective. A recent movement to include Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) is a good example of this.
Lisa Newman is urging patients and their families to take charge of their own health care. The co-author of Journeys in Cancerland with John-Peter Bradford, Newman, 67, is a psychiatric social worker who has spent much of her career working in hospitals.
ANDRE PICARD - It is essential that the health care system be transformed to put the needs of patients and their families ahead of those of providers, the new president of the Canadian Medical Association says.
In this article, PAC president Sholom Glouberman argues for greater patient representation and, “If you’re going to improve the patient experience, you have to look at things from the patient’s point of view."
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.
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.
February 17, 2012 - The Drummond Report recognizes that medical problems have shifted from acute (and often infectious) diseases to long term chronic conditions. Because the system remains dedicated to acute aspects of disease it has spawned a growing number of expert-based services and medical specialties that have fragmented the system and made it difficult to provide the continuity of care demanded by chronic conditions.
How Patients can Improve the Healthcare System
Victoria offers some insight from a patient's point of view. Watch the video!