Member, Red and Green Bed Days Program Working Group

Help St. Paul’s Hospital’s Cardiovascular Surgical Ward adapt an award-winning care improvement initiative to assist in the identification of wasted time in a patient’s journey. If you or a loved one has had cardiovascular surgery, this could the working group for you!

Open to: Patient partners in Lower Mainland & Fraser Valley

Lead Organization or Department

St. Paul’s Hospital, 5B Cardiovascular Surgery

Aim

St. Paul’s Hospital’s Cardiovascular Surgical Floor is embarking on a quality improvement project to visually manage the number of days that have significant or little value for patients admitted to the unit. The quality improvement team is working to determine what does and does not make a value added acute care day in hospital, with the aim of eliminating unnecessary delays for the patient Patient partners are the best people to identify which forms of care have significant or are of little value during an acute care stay. The patient partner will collaborate with the team to determine what makes a value-added day.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of collaborate on the spectrum of engagement. The promise to you is that the research partner will work together with you to formulate solutions and incorporate your advice and recommendations into the decisions to the maximum extent possible.  

Eligibility

• Patient or family experience with cardiovascular surgery (e.g. heart valve repair and replacement, heart defect repair, coronary artery bypass, aneurysm repair). Other acute inpatient experience may be considered.
• Experience working in large groups
• Comfort in telling their story
• Some familiarity with data analysis would be an asset

Logistics

Number of Vacancies: 2 Commitment: They anticipate that they will be scheduling bi-weekly or monthly 1-2 hour meetings until the end of the year. There is some flexibility, but likely between 0800 - 1600. In-person participation is preferred, but teleconference can be arranged. Between meetings documents may be sent to patient partners for review and feedback.

Reimbursement

Pre-approved expenses related to travel (e.g. transit, parking up to $18/day, and approved mileage) will be reimbursed by the health care partner. Please note: that it may take 4-6 weeks to process expenses.

Background

The Cardiovascular Surgical unit is embarking on implementing an award-winning care improvement initiative. “Red and Green Bed Days” are a visual management system to assist in the identification of wasted time in a patient’s care and recovery journey. Applicable to in-patient wards in both acute and community settings, this approach is used to reduce internal and external delays. A RED day is when a patient experiences a delay, resulting in waiting for a service, treatment, or transfer. On a GREEN day, a patient receives all the necessary services that progresses their hospitalization towards discharge. At the centre of the system is the person receiving the acute care whose experience should be one of involvement and personal control, with an expectation of what will be happening. To support the patient-centered focus of this initiative, we will be encouraging patients and families to seek the answer to 4 key questions every day:

1. What is wrong with me?
2. What is going to happen to me today while I am in hospital?
3. When can I expect to go home?
4. What needs to happen for me to get home?

The team working to implement this initiative includes quality improvement specialists, nurse leaders, physiotherapists, social workers, occupational therapists, managers and physicians. During our initial discussions we realized we are talking about the best care for a person without consulting the group who stands to benefit the most in the outcome of this process. We do not have terms of reference at this time. The care setting we are focusing on is the cardiovascular surgical ward.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Karen Estrin
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Lower Mainland & Sunshine Coast
604.668.8245
kestrin@bcpsqc.ca