April 27, 2023
The Patient Engagement Team at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) works closely with Patient and Family partners to co-design several projects. When it came to deciding how they would promote People-Centred Care, a new priority process for Accreditation, naturally they reached out to the Patient and Family partners to co-design the project. What resulted was the creation of a video that evokes emotion and acknowledges the role everyone plays in the care of patients.
People-Centred Care is about recognizing and celebrating the roll of everyone involved in health care including patients, care partners, staff, physicians, volunteers and learners.
The project
The project co-design team was comprised of 10 individuals including four patient and family partners, four staff representatives and two patient engagement specialists. By design, patient partners in collaboration with staff representatives led the discussions and helped drive the ideas. The patient engagement specialists facilitated the meetings and provided administrative support.
The co-design project team met several times over the course of five months. From the beginning, the project team knew their focus was going to center on educating staff, physicians, learners and volunteers about what People-Centred Care means. Instead of using an online education tool like an iLearn webinar, the team chose to create a video which they felt would have more impact.
Together, the team created the concept of the video and script. Patient engagement specialists organized the filming and asked staff, physicians, patient partners and volunteers throughout the organization to participate. With 45 volunteers, filming was arranged for one 16-hour day.
A patient’s perspective
Maggie Perquin, a patient partner for three years joined the co-design project. To Perquin, she sees People-Centred Care as a crucial piece in the care of patients. “I’m excited with promoting People-Centred Care. There is authentic support throughout the organization from leadership to frontline staff for this,” explains Perquin. “I feel validated and clearly listened to from the co-design project and I’ve seen the impact of having my voice included in People-Centred Care initiatives.”
“We were intentionally brought together and it was authentic because I saw the immediate change implemented when we made a recommendation,” Perquin says. “We were always thanked for our input and taken seriously.”
Perquin also participated in the preparations for Accreditation by helping conduct tracers in departments throughout LHSC where she had the opportunity to engage directly with front line staff, leaders and patients. She noticed staff on in-patient floors being creative with ideas and suggestions to adapt to the changes over the past couple of years. Perquin encourages them to continue, especially with out-of-the-box thinking to help implement People-Centred Care.
For patients and care partners, Perquin is also equally encouraging to speak up and tell their stories. “Please don’t hesitate to advocate for yourself/loved one,” she says. “The more we say, the more impact we will have. The first method of care is the patient’s story.” She believes that by working together patients, care partners, staff, physicians, leaders, volunteers, and learners can strengthen the patient experience at LHSC through People-Centred Care.
The People-Centred Care video exemplifies the impact of collaborating and working together, both in its design and its production.
If you are interested in learning more about the Patient and Family Partner program at LHSC, please email the Patient Engagement Office via email at lhscpatientengagement@lhsc.on.ca.