Patient Speaker, Surgical Patient Optimization Collaborative Event

The time between when a surgery is booked and a patient enters the operating room is an opportunity to focus on optimization. By considering both the mental and physical aspects of surgery, evidence shows that we can decrease risk factors and improve outcomes. Examples of optimization include identifying alcohol and drug usage, cardiac disease, glucose control, pain management, nutrition, physical activity, smoking cessation, social supports, mental health and more. Read on to learn about how you can share your surgical story so we can optimize future surgeries in BC!

Open to: Patient partners across the province

Lead Organization or Department

Specialist Services Committee, Doctors of BC

Aim

The Specialist Services Committee of the Doctors of BC and the Ministry of Health are committed to supporting care providers to improve the surgical experience for patients! To do this we have created an Optimization Collaborative which will:

• Support care providers to implement change processes to improve patient’s readiness for surgery
• Utilize the patient’s pre-operative surgical wait time to create multi-disciplinary, structured, personalized programs to support improved outcomes after surgery
• Improve patient outcomes for elective surgeries across the province

We are looking for a patient to come share about their surgical experience at our launch event on May 6. If the patient partner is interested, they could then be involved in further work with the Collaborative.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of consult on the spectrum of engagement. The promise to you is that the health care partner will listen to and acknowledge your ideas and concerns, and provide feedback on how your input affected the decision.

Eligibility

• We are hoping to recruit a patient partner who has been optimized before surgery or a patient who thinks that they might have had a better outcome if they had been better prepared during the time leading up to their surgery.
• Ability to speak to a large group (about 125 people)

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: 1
• Location: Richmond, BC
• Date/time: May 6, talk will be given some time between 8:00am and 10:00am
• Commitment: one time, 20-minute talk (Please note: Patient will be welcome to attend the full day event if they are interested.)
• Prior to the event, staff will have a conversation with the selected patient partner to help them develop their presentation. Slides are optional.

Reimbursement

Pre-approved expenses related to travel will be covered in advance when possible or reimbursed by the health care partner. This includes local travel expenses such as mileage, parking, and transit; as well as flights, accommodations and per diems if the selected patient partner is from outside of the lower mainland.

Background

The Surgical Patient Optimization Collaborative is being launched by the Specialist Services Committee (SSC) in partnership with the Shared Care Committee (SCC) and the General Practitioners Services Committee (GPSC). With the support of health authorities, the Collaborative will be implemented for a total of 18 months of interactive, multi-disciplinary learning fueled by in-person learning sessions and action periods, designed to support the implementation of optimization processes and components. Teams will be supported throughout the period of the collaborative to create a sustainable optimization process in order to be able to continue this work beyond the time period of the Collaborative. Based on the Ministry of Health's priority to improve surgical outcomes, and the previous work led by the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) collaborative in 2015/16, we are working together with surgeons, anesthesiologists, general practitioners, nurses, administrative staff, patients and allied health professionals to work on better preparing patients for surgery to improve post-surgical outcomes.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Kathryn Proudfoot
Engagement Leader, Patient & Public Engagement | Provincial
604.668.8246
kproudfoot@bcpsqc.ca