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Because your voice matters.

Participant, Urgent Family Care and Teaching Centre, Kamloops

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Open to Interior Region, Patient partners who access the Royal Inland Hospital Emergency Department

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Data shows that a large percentage of patients presenting to Royal Inland Hospital Emergency Department require a different level of care and as such are having to wait for extended periods of time to see a doctor. In addition, many of these patients do not have a family doctor. You are invited to participate in a focus group looking at the development of a new family urgent care and teaching centre. This new centre will be the first of its kind in Interior Health, offering an alternative place to be seen when your care is urgent but not life threatening.

Open to: Patient partners who access the Royal Inland Hospital Emergency Department

Lead Organization or Department

Interior Health, Royal Inland Hospital

Aim

The health care team plans to offer a service that is timely and appropriate for the symptoms the patient is presenting. The centre will feature a unique partnership with UBC where patients will have the opportunity to be assessed by medical residents. Through this service we will attempt to attach patients to the clinic for those without a primary care provider. We are looking for the patient voice in helping us determine the best way for patients to utilize the service. We seek the patient’s opinion on such things as:
  • how the patient will access the service i.e. points of entry,
  • how the patient will flow through the care i.e. the patient journey from start to finish,
  • the kind of follow up required upon discharge,
  • team based care and what that means to our patient partner, and
  • the best way to educate the public on the difference between emergent and urgent care.
Our patients may be asked questions in a focus group format and we may require patients to sit on some of our committees to help inform the work as it moves forward.

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

This opportunity is ideal for patient partners who:
  • are comfortable telling their story of experience with the health care system particularly with their primary care provider (if they have one) and with the use of the Royal Inland Hospital Emergency Department.
  • are comfortable with working in groups with different health care professionals.
Note: Interior Health is hoping to engage diverse patient partners based on age, gender, culture and geographic location. 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: 10
  • Format: In-person focus group in Kamloops, location to be determined.
  • Commitment: The initial request is for a single focus group session in early January. Additional opportunities may evolve from this focus group in the form of follow-up focus groups or working group invitations.

Reimbursement

All expenses and travel costs will be reimbursed as per the Interior Health policy. Receipts must be presented at time of reimbursement application for remuneration to occur.

Background

As our population continues to grow, it is has become clear that more immediate and primary care services are required to meet our local community’s needs. The patients’ voice is crucial to the work we are doing in order for the new centre to be designed to meet the patient’s needs. The new centre will be part of a primary care network in which other health care providers in the community will have the opportunity to refer the patient to the new service if appropriate. Various staff members from Interior Health representing different areas and disciplines will be involved such as nursing, allied health, administrative support, IMIT. Partners representing UBC will also be involved.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Jacquelyne Foidart
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Thompson Cariboo
250.879.1077
jfoidart@bcpsqc.ca

From Our Community

Layton Engwer

Patient Partner, Sooke

Layton Engwer

PVN helped empower me to make meaningful contributions to Primary Care (PC) locally and provincially.  It also facilitated creation of PC Patient Voices which is focused on PC and provides education support and building on shared experiences.