To help support successful and meaningful partnerships, this “Patient Partner Service User Agreement” outlines the role of the Health Quality BC team that administers PVN, as well as your responsibilities as a patient partner. Health care organizations that are responsible for leading the engagement opportunities also have their own Health Care Partner Service User Agreement too!
Keep a copy for your records.
Please review and electronically submit this document (below) as part of your sign-up to become a patient partner with PVN.
Health Quality BC, through its administration of PVN, will*:
- Treat you with fairness, courtesy, dignity and respect;
- Offer you opportunities for engagement;
- Keep you informed through newsletters, the website and social media;
- Provide you with sound guidance, orientation and opportunities for skills development;
- Show appreciation for your efforts; and
- Strive for you to feel safe and supported.
*Adapted from Self-Management BC’s Program Leader Handbook
As a patient partner, I will:
- Work with others and treat them with fairness, courtesy, dignity and respect.
- Discuss with the health care partner I am working with any conflicts of interest.
- Follow through on my commitments to engagement opportunities. If I am not able to meet a commitment, I will notify the health care partner as soon as possible.
- Review and follow the Conflict Management Process (see below).
For confidentiality, I will:
- Respect the privacy of patient and health care partners.
- Consider all information about health care and patient partners I learn or obtain through engagement opportunities as confidential.
- Not tell, show, copy, sell, change or disclose any information without prior permission.
- Take all reasonable measures to secure information and dispose of it, when necessary.
- Seek support from the health care partner if I have any questions.
- Be aware that health care organizations may have their own confidentiality agreements to sign.
- Maintain confidentiality of all information obtained as a patient partner, if I leave.
Health Quality BC will collect personal information under section 26 (c) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act for the purposes of operating the Patient Voices Network. If you have any questions about the collection of your personal information please contact: Tammy Hoefer, Director, Patient & Public Engagement, Health Quality BC, 201-750 West Pender St., Vancouver, BC, or via telephone at 1.877.282.1919
Keep a copy of the Patient Partner Service User Agreement that you can save or print.
Conflict Management
Purpose: To provide an optional process for managing conflict within an engagement opportunity.
Health Quality BC provides resources to help health care and patient partners be successful in working together. There are times when working together may lead to conflict. While ensuring that your engagement opportunity has regular check-ins can be helpful, there are times when you may feel that a more focused conversation is needed to determine if you want to continue to work together.
The following is a suggested staged process to review and address concerns. Removing a patient partner from an engagement opportunity would only occur if stages one and two were not successful.
Note: This is an optional process. Sponsoring health care organizations may have processes that they may choose to follow instead.
Stage One: Informal Discussion
An informal discussion between the patient partner and the health care partner(s), to respectfully review concerns and co-create solutions. This is an opportunity for anyone involved to raise any concerns they may have.
Stage Two: Formal Meeting & Supportive Action Planning
A formal meeting between the patient partner (can invite a support person if desired) and the health care partner(s) to:
- Discuss previous solution efforts,
- Create a supportive action plan outlining the background of the issue, agreed actions, shared expectations and proposed timelines and
- Sign a decision agreement.
Stage Three: Ending involvement in the engagement opportunity
If stage two is not successful:
- The health care partner(s) would advise the patient partner of their removal from the engagement opportunity OR
- The patient partner would advise the health care partner(s) of their withdrawal from the opportunity.
Escalation & Special Circumstances
If the Health Care Partner(s) has a grave concern about a patient partner that could potentially warrant suspension and/or termination of their access to the PVN platform, they will notify both the patient partner and Health Quality BC.
If the Patient Partner has a grave concern about a health care partner which could potentially warrant the Health Care Partner(s) suspension and/or termination of their access to the PVN platform, they will notify both the health care partner and Health Quality BC.
There are a few special circumstances in which someone may be immediately removed from an engagement opportunity and/or access the PVN platform. In the very rare case that any of the following occur, stages one to three could be by-passed:
- Lying or falsifying information on official forms related to your participation through PVN;
- Engaging in any form of harassment, discrimination, physical or verbal abuse of other patient partners, health care partners or HQBC staff;
- Stealing or purposely misusing PVN or health care partner money, property or materials; or
- Illegal, violent or unsafe acts.
