Attendee, Quality Forum 2019

Quality Forum 2019 will welcome over 1,200 participants from across British Columbia on February 26 – 28, 2019 in Vancouver, including 20 PVN Patient Partners. Join health care professionals, students and patients from across the province to discuss opportunities and challenges, network with others interested in improving health care in British Columbia.

Open to: Patient partners across the province

Lead Organization or Department

BC Patient Safety & Quality Council

Aim

Overall, the four goals of Quality Forum 2019 are to:

• Ignite action and learning to improve quality of care;
• Create and strengthen connections and collaboration across all areas of care;
• Share effective strategies and leading practices to stimulate and sustain improvement; and
• Demonstrate how every voice matters to achieve high quality care.

The aim of inviting patients to this conference is to ensure that their unique experience and perspectives are heard and included as fully as possible. To this end, patient volunteers are encouraged to participate in discussions — seeking out new ideas and sharing their own knowledge, perspectives and experiences as relevant — and use their voice for improvement. The patient partner will attend the Forum and act as a champion of patient engagement and PVN through networking opportunities and a PVN booth. Following the Forum, the patient partner will be asked to share their insights with other members of the network as well as provide feedback into improvements for next years Forum.

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

• Open to patient partners from across BC, representing a diverse range of regions and communities.
• We would like to invite a diverse range of patient partners, representing a range of ages, genders, medical and patient engagement experiences, and backgrounds.
• Patient partners should be comfortable speaking with a diverse range of health care providers, leaders, and other stakeholders.

Patients should have previously attended a PVN orientation session.  If you have not attended an orientation but are interested please contact Carol Stathers or Jami Brown directly to see if accommodations may be possible.

Logistics

Number of Vacancies: 20 (including pre-Forum session, Health Talks, and main-QF19 programming) Date, Time, Location: The event will take place from February 26 - 28, 2019, with main programming on the 27 and 28 and pre-Forum sessions and Health Talks on the 26. All events are located at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver hotel. Sessions run from approximately 0830 - 1630 each day, with the option of attending evening events.  See the three-day Program at a Glance.

Reimbursement

Registration and all travel costs incurred to attend these events will be covered or reimbursed in accordance with the provincial Travel Policy guidelines. As much as possible, we will pre-pay travel expenses directly (e.g., booking flights and accommodation). For those expenses we cannot pay in advance (e.g., transit tickets, meals), we are able to provide expedited payment within a couple of weeks via cheque mailed to the address provided once an expense reimbursement form is received to our Vancouver office. If required, assistance may be provided upon request to ensure hotel deposits and incidental expenses are looked after in advance to reduce or eliminate the need for post-event reimbursement.  If you believe this applies to you, please contact Jami Brown, Carol Stathers or another Engagement leader to discuss this in more detail.

Background

Quality Forum 2019 will be our eighth annual conference, featuring multiple days of presentations and interactive workshops on a variety of topics related to improving quality across the continuum of care. The Forum brings together clinicians, quality improvement leaders, patients, students, researchers, administrators, board members and senior executives from across the province to celebrate successes, address challenges and identify strategies for advancing the quality of health care. The main programming and pre-Forum events present a great opportunity to learn new skills, discuss opportunities and challenges, and network with others interested in improving health care in British Columbia. We are expecting to welcome more than 1200 attendees throughout the Forum events. While measures will be taken to optimize flow, comfort in a crowd and large group settings is a must. Plenary sessions will involve 950 attendees and breakout sessions will range from 50-180 people per room. The event is being held at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, which states that it “is committed to ensuring that we meet and exceed all of the requirements of Access Canada” so disability requirements will be able to be accommodated. Travel to the hotel downtown Vancouver will also be required (travel costs will be covered by BCPSQC). Breakout sessions are expected to fill, so we will encourage patient volunteers to register as soon as possible in order to ensure space in their first-choice sessions. To facilitate early registration, we would like to select and inform successful applicants prior to registration launch so that they may register at their earliest convenience as soon as the online form is made available. We will also provide step-by-step instructions on how to navigate the online form and be available to offer technical support and/or answer any questions when the time comes. We will be in contact with selected patient partners throughout the lead-up to the Forum. This incldues providing step-by-step instructions and technical support when registration opens in November so that they are able to register as soon as possible (as some breakout sessions reach capacity quickly). To learn more about Quality Forum 2019, please visit www.qualityforum.ca.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Carol Stathers
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Okanagan, Interior Region
778.516.3308
cstathers@bcpsqc.ca

Jami Brown
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Fraser Valley
604.510.0449
jbrown@bcpsqc.ca