Our purpose in Patient Engagement at LHSC is to bring our team members and people with lived health-care experiences together as partners and support them as they improve the quality of care at LHSC. Together with our Patient and Family Partners, we help ensure the patient and caregiver voice is embedded in decision-making processes and improvements across the hospital.
Patient and Family Partners:
Patient and Family Partners are people who have recently experienced being a patient or the caregiver of a patient. By collaborating with our hospital team, Patient and Family Partners provide direct input into policies, programs, and practices to shape patient care and services. This collaborative effort aims to create a health-care environment that reflects the needs and preferences of those we serve.
We support collaboration between Team LHSC and Patient and Family Partners by:
- Educating leaders and teams about patient engagement – working with them to recruit people with lived and living health-care experiences;
- Providing ongoing support to Patient and Family Partners through education, training, and connection to opportunities to work with our teams;
- Working with leaders and teams to launch high-quality engagement activities and develop collaborative relationships with Patient and Family Partners; and
- Evaluating patient engagement activities and outcomes to improve the ways patient engagement takes place throughout LHSC.
Patient and Family Advisory Councils:
LHSC's Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) serve as advisory resources to the administration, staff, and physicians of the organization and its programs. A PFAC provides a venue for patients and families to provide input into policy and program development, and to empower staff, patients, and care partners while upholding the highest quality of care.
There are five advisory councils at LHSC and Children’s Hospital:
Patient Experience Advisory Council
The Patient Experience Advisory Council (PEAC) was established in 2018 and is responsible for providing strategic oversight for patient experience and patient and care partner engagement at LHSC. The PEAC also provides input and advises on patient experience issues that have an impact on the broader organization. The PEAC is supported by the leadership team of the Patient Experience Department and consists of Patient and Family Partners, Community Partners, LHSC staff, and Executive Leadership. In addition to the representation listed, the Chairs and Co-Chairs of all Patient and Family Advisory Councils are members of the PEAC.
Family Advisory Council
The Family Advisory Council (FAC) is dedicated to enhancing the understanding of the needs of Children’s Hospital at LHSC patients and their care partners with the goal of helping to provide an exemplary patient experience. The mission of the FAC is to collaborate, advise, educate, and empower the staff, patients, and care partners of Children’s Hospital while upholding the highest quality of care.
Child & Youth Advisory Council
The Child & Youth Advisory Council (CYAC) seeks to enhance people-centred care and examines the health-care experience through the eyes of children and youth. Through its mission to advise, help, trust, and improve, the CYAC provides fresh, new, helpful, and creative ideas that elevate initiatives related to how care is delivered for children and youth at Children’s Hospital.
Renal Patient and Family Advisory Council
The goal of the Renal PFAC is to improve the patient experience by providing the Renal Program with a patient’s perspective and ideas on how LHSC can better serve patients and their care partners. At the heart of this initiative is the belief that staff and Patient and Family Partners are working together to achieve better health-care outcomes, wiser allocations of resources, and greater patient and care partner satisfaction.
The Cancer Care Patient and Family/Caregiver Advisory Council
The Cancer Care Patient and Family/Caregiver Advisory Council (PFAC) is dedicated to enhancing the understanding of the needs of cancer patients and care partners who use cancer program services with the goal of helping to provide an exemplary patient experience. This PFAC is comprised of 12 Patient and Family Partners onboarded through the Patient Engagement Office for a minimum of one year. The council also includes six staff members from nursing, pharmacy, radiation, and leadership.
Get involved
To express your interest in becoming a Patient and Family Partner, please fill out our short application form.
To express interest in joining a PFAC or to learn more, please contact Patient Engagement via email at LHSCPatientEngagement@lhsc.on.ca or via telephone at 519-685-8500.
