Patient Assessors, Site Environmental Assessments

Island Health believes that everyone should be cared for with compassion and dignity in a clean, safe environment. Site environmental assessments provide motivation for improvement and will now include a clear message, directly from patient assessors about how the care environment can be enhanced. After all, the standard we walk by is the standard we set!

Open to: Patient partners in the Island Health region

Lead Organization or Department

Operations and Support Services, Island Health

Aim

Patient assessors will join a team of senior leaders to assess facilities maintenance, food services, environmental services, supply chain, site logistics and security at select Island Health sites. The assessments will help to ensure hospitals and residential care facilities are clean and safe environments, and are meeting health authority, provincial and national quality standards. In addition to providing feedback based on standards, patients will be invited to use their judgment and experience to identify areas for improvement from the perspective of patients and families.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of involve on the spectrum of engagement (www.iap2.org). The promise to you is that the health care partner will involve patients in planning and design phases to ensure ideas or concerns are considered and reflected in alternatives and recommendations.

Eligibility

• Comfort working in diverse groups and providing constructive feedback.
• Interest in improving non-clinical support services (such as building maintenance, housekeeping, food services etc).
• Previously attended a PVN orientation session and completed the Volunteer Agreement. If you have not attended an orientation session but you are interested in this opportunity, please contact Leah Smith directly to see if accommodations may be possible.
• Note: If you are interested in participating, but unsure if you have the right skills, or have scheduling concerns, please contact Leah to explore this further.

Logistics

• Vacancies: Up to 4. Ideally this will include patient assessors from across the Island Health Region.
• Date and Time: To be determined. Efforts will be made to accommodate the schedules of patient assessors, however, it is expected that the majority of these visits will be occur within regular business hours.
• Location: In-person at various Island Health facilities.
• Commitment: It is expected that the project will conclude in March 2018. It is estimated that patient assessors will be invited to participate in between 4 to 6 site visits in total. Ideally the visits will take place in or near the patient partners home community. Each visit should take less than 3 hours (including a group debrief and report filing).

Reimbursement

Pre-approved out-of-pocket expenses such as mileage, parking and public transit will be reimbursed.

Background

Island Health is seeking to integrate the perspective of patient assessors as part of site environmental assessments of hospitals and residential care homes. Including the patient perspective is critical to ensuring that improvements support privacy and dignity, and that services related to food, cleanliness and general building maintenance meet patient and family expectations of quality. The assessments will focus on the care environment and will not address matters relate to clinical care or staffing. As part of the orientation process for this opportunity, patient assessors will be provided information on relevant Island Health, provincial and national standards (e.g. Accreditation Canada) which guide the site assessments. At each site assessment the partners will be provided with a tool (similar to a checklist or spreadsheet) designed to support the team to consider the appropriate standards when identifying opportunities for improvement. The tool will be used to record feedback from each member of the assessment team and will be submitted at the end of each site assessment. Each assessment will conclude with a team discussion, and the information gathered will be used to formulate an action-oriented report. The patient assessors will also be invited to provide feedback for improvement on the assessment tool itself. It is hoped that patient assessors will be routinely involved in site assessments in future and learning from this engagement opportunity will be used to inform and improve future work.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Leah Smith
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Southern Vancouver Island
778.678.3977
lsmith@bcpsqc.ca