Member, Shared Care Regional Radiology Initiative Working Group

Your perspectives and patient experiences are needed! Are you interested in ensuring timely, fair access to diagnostic imaging, and preventing patients from ‘falling through the cracks’ by missing additional findings? If so, consider joining the Regional Radiology Working Group to help us streamline patient access.

Open to: Patient partners in Providence Health Care communities

Lead Organization or Department

Providence Health Care, Chronic Disease Management

Aim

The key objective for this committee: ensure patients have equitable access to timely and appropriate diagnostic imaging across the Vancouver Coastal region, and to prevent patients from falling through the cracks with follow up to diagnostic imaging. Based off their experiences, patient partners will provide vital input on gaps in diagnostic imaging referral and the process for catching ‘additional findings’ from diagnostic imaging reports.  Helping us develop the patient journey map is essential to our success and where patient partners will help provide valuable input. From there, they will be working as part of the team to form concrete solutions that will drive change surrounding diagnostic imaging in the region.

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

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 the engagement leader directly.

Logistics

• Vacancies: 2
• Working group meetings will be held every 1-2 months from 1800-2000 at Providence Health Care’s corporate offices at 1190 Hornby Street in downtown Vancouver. Food and refreshments will be provided.
• There will be 2-4 sub-working group meetings scheduled when needed to solidify prototype details. Participation in these meetings could be via teleconference, or in person at the corporate office.
• Patient partners will be expected to attend meetings, as well as provide periodic feedback via email between meetings. As there are many people in the meetings, preference is for patient partners to attend in person, but can occasionally connect via teleconference.
• Patient partners would be joining this work mid-way as the group has already engaged in the design of the lower mainland central intake for MRI. Patient partners will continue to provide feedback on this pathway as well as support the next phases of work which may include the referral process for MRI and CT scans of the head, and how to ensure patients do not ‘fall through the cracks’ with lost follow up from diagnostic findings.

Reimbursement

Expenses related to travel (i.e. transit, parking up to $18/day, approved mileage) to attend the meetings will be reimbursed by Providence Health Care.

Background

Anecdotal feedback from family physicians (FPs) indicated that there are opportunities to improve how they share information and consult with radiologists regarding diagnostic tests. There is a willingness from both FPs and radiologists to work on a regional diagnostic imaging quality improvement initiative to improve care for patients. Initial engagement with family physicians around diagnostic procedures identified many positive areas that are working well. There were also several areas for improvement that resulted in our work-to-date assisting with central MRI intake across the lower mainland region.

• Lack of visibility of what the wait times are for the different tests (results in requisitions being sent out to several sites)
• Inability to know if the request was received by the radiology department (results in requisition being sent out to several sites)
• Lack of understanding of what the appropriate test should be
• Inability to access urgent testing unless the patient is sent to the emergency department
• Inability to speak to a radiologist when you need advice
• Lack of a standardized process to access diagnostic imaging across different organizations
• Complicated requisitions that are often not accepted for unknown reasons
• Patients do not have the ability to book a convenient time for their procedures.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

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