Skip to main content

Because your voice matters.

Patient Assessors, Site Environmental Assessments

Posted • Last updated

Closed

Open to Vancouver Island Region, Patient partners in the Island Health region

Last updated

Good environments matter. Island Health believes that everyone should be cared for with compassion and dignity within a clean, safe environment. This is an opportunity for patient partners to have a stronger voice in shaping environments that promote exceptional experiences for all who live, visit or work within Island Health care facilities.  If you have an interest in having a positive contribution to continuous improvement in non-clinical support services (such as building maintenance, housekeeping or food services), this opportunity is for you!

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 selected Island Health facilities for maintenance, food services, environmental services, supply chain, site logistics, and safety and security. The assessments will help to ensure that hospitals and long term 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, patient assessors will be invited to use their judgment and experience to identify areas for improvement from the perspective of patients and families. Patient Advisor Led Site Environmental Assessments (PAL-SEAs) provide insights for improvement and include a clear message, directly from patient assessors, about how the care environment can be improved and enhanced.   After all, the standard we walk by is the standard we set!

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of involve on the spectrum of engagement. 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.)
  • Ability to travel to Island Health care facilities
  • Ability to dedicate a full day of engagement for each site assessment, for a total of 4-6 days per year
  • Willingness to participate in reviewing the output report from each assessment and potentially participating in a follow-up review meeting with Island Health representatives
You must have 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 Ashley Clark directly to see if accommodations may be possible. This opportunity is not open to patient partners who are currently employed by Island Health. The placement process for this opportunity may include an informal interview between the volunteer and the health care partner.

Logistics

Vacancies: 10 (We are hoping to find 4 patient partners from Region 4, and 2 from each of Regions 1, 2 & 3) Date and time: To be determined. Efforts will be made to accommodate the schedules of patient assessors. However, it is expected that most of these visits will occur within regular business hours. Each visit should take approximately 6-7 hours (including a group debrief and report filing). Visits to start in March 2019. Location: In-person at various Island Health facilities across the region. We will make efforts to arrange site visits in or close to patient partners’ home communities. Commitment: 1 year with the option of extending. Training: Patient assessors will be invited to an orientation session of approximately 3 hours before the first assessment visit – location and meeting format to be determined. The orientation session will be in March 2019 with PAL-SEAs beginning thereafter.

Reimbursement

Pre-approved out-of-pocket expenses for transportation costs will be reimbursed. Lunch will be provided at the site visits.

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 related to clinical care or staffing. As part of the orientation process for this opportunity, patient assessors will be provided with a guideline as to what aspects to consider during an Island Health PAL-SEA, as well as information on relevant Island Health, provincial and national standards (e.g. Accreditation Canada) which also guide the site assessments. At each site assessment, the team will be provided with a tool (similar to a checklist or spreadsheet) to help identify opportunities for improvement and to highlight and acknowledge aspects worth recognizing. 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. 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 PAL-SEA program itself as part of the annual program review process. It is expected that the PAL-SEA program will be a recurring program based on a predetermined schedule updated annually. An annual review of the program is planned for January 2020.  Island Health hopes to retain a common set of advisors, reposting an invite to the program each year.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Ashley Clark
Engagement Leader, Patient & Public Engagement | Vancouver Island
250.812.8908
aclark@bcpsqc.ca

From Our Community

Christine Wallsworth

Patient Partner, Vancouver

Christine Wallsworth

Patient and family partners should not be a check box on research proposals! They need to be involved right from the start. I know patient and family partners are doing their part by providing their knowledge to researchers from their lived experience.  It’s a win-win for us to work together through PVN to make sure our input drives improvements.