Member, Interior Health Medication Reconciliation Steering Committee

Volunteer Opportunity
Interior Health is seeking patient partners who are passionate about medication safety. We would like you to join us as we strive to improve the quality and safety across many areas where medications are a component of care.

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Lead Organization/Department
Interior Health – Quality & Patient Safety

Aim
The goal of the initiative is to develop standard processes for care teams to collect a patients’ medication history, compare it to what the patient is currently taking, and communicate decisions to patients and their care team. The role of the patient partner would be to actively participate in the Steering Committee providing feedback and ideas of how we can continue to improve the quality and safety related to this specific area of medication related care.

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

Eligibility
• Experience with working virtually with a larger group.
• Comfortable with sharing your story and perspective on information and decision making.
• If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and Volunteer Agreement, are unsure if your experience is a good fit or feel another format of engagement would work better with your availability, please contact Carol Stathers

Logistics
• Number of vacancies:  1 (you will be joining one other patient partner who has been on the committee since 2020)
Date and Time: The Steering Committee is ongoing and we meet every second month for one hour
– The meeting is usually the first Thursday of the month from 2:30 to 3:30 pm.
– There will be some pre-work before each meeting- normally less than 30 mins.
– The next meeting is April 7th from 2:30-3:30pm
• Location: All meetings are virtual with teleconference and Zoom.
• Commitment: over a year

Reimbursement
There are no expenses anticipated.

Background
Medication Reconciliation is a quality and safety requirement to meet Accreditation Canada Required Organizational Practices and it is mandatory to have it lead by an interdisciplinary team with the health authority. This initiative crosses all care areas from Acute Care, Long term Care, Community Care, Mental Health and Substance Use, Cancer Care, and many others and the committee membership is reflective of that diversity. The focus of the committee is to oversee, guide, and inform medication safety processes specifically related to the Medication Reconciliation process (collect medication history, compare to current medication needs as patients transition through the healthcare system, and communicate medication decisions clearly to the care team and patients).

Medications are a key aspect of many care journeys and when not properly understood it can have a negative impact for the care teams decision making and patient outcomes. We have many processes in place, however we need the patient’s perspective on how we can engage the public in this process when they come into care. There is a key role for patients to help assist with providing and being provided up to date medication information as they move through their care journey.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

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