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Because your voice matters.

Partnership Impacts

Collaborations between our patient and health care partners are improving the quality of care within BC’s health care system. While we provide some of those partnership impacts in our annual report, we know that you want to know more about the impact you’re making.

These blog posts, videos, podcasts and other resources provide you with stories of inspiration, dedication and collaboration which achieved better health care. We collect these stories through our Closing the Loop Process (CTL) or direct submissions from patient and/or health care partners; they help guide our future work and serve as a meaningful way patient partners receive recognition, feedback and validation for their time and volunteerism. If you want to tell us about your partnership, we have created a checklist to help guide your submission.

We would also be happy to have you write your own article. All submissions will be subject to review and edits, following consultations between you and the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council team. Since writing something from scratch – especially for someone else – can be tricky, we put together a few tips and suggestions to make it easier and faster for you.

Contact us if you’d like to share the story of your engagement opportunity. We’d love to help you tell it!

From Diagnosis to Action – the Dementia Companion Handbook 

In 2008, patient partner Mario Gregario received a life-altering diagnosis of dementia. “Sometimes when people receive a life-changing diagnosis, they become depressed. I looked at it as how can I improve myself and the next generation.”    Determined to help others improve their experience after diagnosis, Mario…

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COVID-19: PVN Patient Partners Respond

After two full years of co-existing with COVID-19, it may no longer seem like a ‘novel’ virus. With each new wave, new challenges wash ashore, and the societal and health system impacts of COVID-19 continue to evolve. Like health care staff, PVN patient partners rose to the challenge and contributed…

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Falls Prevention: With Patients. For Patients.

Falls are a leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations and often the reason why older adults lose their independence. Without prevention efforts, it is estimated that one third of people over the age of 65 will fall once or more each year.1 Fortunately, falls are not inevitable. Coordinated prevention efforts and…

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Psychological Safety in the Surgical Suite

Psychological Safety. It’s a notion that most would agree is important, but a bit elusive. The formal definition is “the degree to which people view the environment as conducive to interpersonally risky behaviours like speaking up or asking for help.”1 In health care environments, when it is lacking, staff and…

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Engaging Patients, Caregivers and Families in Developing BC’s Stroke Quality Standard

The BC Health Quality Matrix is an excellent resource that presents a definition and common language for understanding quality through seven dimensions: respect, safety, accessibility, appropriateness, effectiveness, equity and efficiency. But what does quality care mean for a specific health condition or journey? Certainly “best practice recommendations” and “clinical guidelines” highlight…

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Skunkworks: Hacking Pain

Skunk-what? Skunkworks is an approach to problem-solving that assembles multidisciplinary teams and empowers them with mentorship and tools to tackle big challenges and prototype solutions.

Continue reading… A closeup of a table covered with bits of paper with drawings on them. Several people sit around the table talking.
From British Columbia to Brazil: Patient Engagement Goes Global

When Patient Voices Network patient partner Aline Silva saw the chance to combine her passion for health care with her experiences as a patient, she jumped at the chance. Aline’s dedication to patient engagement has gone global through her connections to Brazil and Canada. One of our Engagement Leaders, Jami Brown, chatted with Aline about her experiences.

Continue reading… Aline Silva smiles into the camera. She is wearing a black button up shirt.

From Our Community

Karla Warkotsch

Patient Experience Consultant – Interior Health

Karla Warkotsch

The question I like to ask health care employees is ‘Who is this for?’ and ‘Do we have the right people at the table?’ As a health care employee, I see how easy it is to fall into doing for, rather than doing with patients. The voices of the patient, family and caregiver are essential to ensure the patient is central to the direction and focus of the work being done.