Patient Partner, Patient Care Quality Office

Volunteer Opportunity
Are you passionate about making improvements to how Island Health responds to patient feedback? Are you a past or present patient or family member of Island Health? Would you like to help us improve the services offered by the Patient Care Quality Office for patients and families like yours? If you answered yes to any of these, then this is the role for you!

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Lead Organization/Department
Patient Care Quality Office, Island Health

Aim
The Island Health Patient Care Quality Office (PCQO) is a Ministry of Health legislative process to capture and respond to care compliments and concerns received from patients and their families.   Island Health’s Patient Care Quality Office (PCQO) is looking for patient partners to help our PCQO team make improvements to our services and help to inform our key strategic goals and initiatives for 2021-2023.

This is an exciting opportunity to share your experience and expertise as a patient partner to promote improved services and processes for patients and families who access our services. Please note that this role will not, at this time, be providing input into health system improvements to clinical service delivery. However, as a patient partner you will help ensure that patient voices and experiences are fully integrated into the work of the PCQO and our future planning.

Once oriented to the PCQO, patient partners will be asked to participate and advise on a number of items which may include, but are not limited to:
• Informing PCQO patient and family educational materials
• Providing feedback on existing PCQO processes for improvement
• Help us to better understand what patients and families are looking for in an empathetic response;
Review PCQO data to identify opportunities to improve how we collect information and what is collected; and
• Participate in PCQO interview processes and orientation of new PCQO staff members.

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
• Open to patient partners from across the Vancouver Island region (residing in the South Vancouver Island region is an asset due to logistics for future in-person meetings, however not required)
• Experience (personal or family) with the health care system
Able to critically assess systems and process
• Experience in customer service, letter writing, and complaint management are considered an asset, but are not required
• Experience having accessed the services provided by the Patient Care Quality Office, or similar patient feedback service are considered an asset but not required
• Please note:
– This opportunity, as with all Island Health patient engagement opportunities, is not open to Island Health staff members or patient partners who are currently employed by Island Health. If you have questions regarding this, please email experience@viha.ca.
– The placement process for this opportunity may include an informal interview between the volunteer and the health care partner.
– Applicants must have previously attended a PVN orientation session and completed the Volunteer Agreement. If you have not attended an orientation session but you are interested in this opportunity, please contact Charmaine Niebergall directly to see if accommodations may be possible.

Logistics
• Number of vacancies: 3
• Date/Time: TBD (please note: we would be pleased to offer meetings during evenings and weekend hours to support those patient partners who cannot attend during standard office hours)
• Location: Virtually over Zoom, until appropriate to meet in person in Victoria
• Commitment:
– Monthly 1.5 hour meetings
– 1 year commitment
– Additional time before and after meetings is required to review agenda items and other necessary documents

Reimbursement
No out-of-pocket expenses are anticipated for this engagement opportunity. However, if and when meetings return to in-person, pre-approved expenses related to travel to in-person meetings will be reimbursed according to the Island Health Travel policy (including mileage, parking, tolls and/or public transit).

Background
The Island Health Patient Care Quality Office (PCQO) is a Ministry of Health legislative process to capture and respond to care compliments and concerns received from patients and their families. PCQO has been engaged in a number of improvement initiatives aimed at developing the services we offer to patients and their families. The PCQO has made a number of improvements to date, but as we continue to implement these improvements, we recognize the need to ensure the changes are informed and driven by patient partners.

The PCQO received and provided oversight for the management and processing of care concerns and compliments within Island Health in accordance with the Patient Care Quality Review Board Act. Our office receives approximately 2800 contacts from patients, family members and representatives each year. Our office works closely with clients and with our clinical teams to share feedback from care experiences that informs and supports important quality improvement work where services are delivered.

We believe that the patient, family and community experience is key to informing the work we do and service we deliver. By engaging patient partners we hope to draw on the unique perspectives and knowledge of patients, their families and their communities of support. Our team participating in this work includes the director, manager, and team lead of the patient care quality office as well as guests depending on the work (i.e Risk Management Manager). By participating as a patient partner you will help ensure that patient voices and experiences are fully integrated into the work we do and our future planning.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Charmaine Niebergall
Engagement Leader, Patient & Public Engagement | Vancouver Island
778.700.2064
cniebergall@bcpsqc.ca