Ultimate Blogging Championship

Tag: Patient Engagement

  • Bits & Pieces: GoodLife launch, Bright Lights nominations, CCO transition to FIT & more

    Bits & Pieces: GoodLife launch, Bright Lights nominations, CCO transition to FIT & more

    Your Weekly News & Updates

    In this Issue:  
    • GoodLife program launch
    • Bright Lights Awards nominations now open
    • Reminder- CCO transition to fecal immunochemical test June 24
    • HQO patient partnering guide
    • Primary Care Virtual Community- Apr. 25 summary
    • CAMH opioid de-implementation project update
    • Canada’s Volunteer Awards call for nominations
    • Upcoming events regarding mental health and addiction QI collaboration and more

    GoodLife program launch
    AFHTO members can now save up to 40% off regular GoodLife Fitness rates. The annual Corporate Membership rate is $519, and the bi-weekly payment will be $24. For this first phase, all identified members on our ‘Bits & Pieces’ mailing list as of May 23 are already eligible for the discount.

    To register, please email info@afhto.ca for your membership ID. Once you’ve received your ID, you can register online.

    Any identified member added to ‘Bits & Pieces’ mailing list after May 23 will be assigned member IDs on a monthly basis. For more information:

    If you have any questions, please email info@afhto.ca.

    Bright Lights Awards nominations now open
    AFHTO’s “Bright Lights” Awards recognize AFHTO members’ leadership, outstanding work and the significant progress being made to improve the value interprofessional primary care teams across Ontario deliver. There’s no better time to show what you can do.

    Select award recipients will receive an education grant. Find out how you can nominate an outstanding team or individual here. Deadline June 28, 2019.

    Reminder- CCO transition to fecal immunochemical test June 24
    Cancer Care Ontario through its ColonCancerCheck (CCC) screening program is transitioning to the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) as the recommended screening test for people at average risk of developing colorectal cancer. The guaiac fecal occult blood test (gFOBT) will no longer be used in the CCC program. The FIT will be available through the CCC program on June 24, 2019. For more information on the implementation of the FIT including eligibility criteria, please visit the FIT Resource Hub.

    HQO patient partnering guideHQO patient partnering guide
    Are you starting a new quality improvement project at your organization? Have you included patient partners in the process? To get the most out of partnering with patients, read Health Quality Ontario’s new guide that addresses some common challenges. It’s based on advice and best practices used by health care professionals and patient partners across the province. For even more tools and resources to better integrate patient partnering into your work, explore their Hub.

     

    Primary Care Virtual Community- Apr. 25 summary
    primary care virtual communityIn the Apr. 25 session Dr. Robert Varnam, GP and Head of General Practice Development at NHS England, shared his learning on the journey that the UK underwent in health system transformation where primary care was at the center of reforms. The community was engaged on how the learning can be applied within Ontario. The links to the summary and video are on our site.

    The next session will be June 26.

     

     

    CAMH opioid de-implementation project update
    On behalf of our partners at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), we’d like to provide you with an update about the Opioid De-Implementation Project, an initiative which aims to improve opioid stewardship and non-palliative pain management by identifying and replacing low-value clinical practices with high-value, evidence-based approaches (a process known as de-implementation).

    As part of the initiative, CAMH will be offering an electronic pathway that will to guide practitioners to assess a range of patient/client domains, including pain severity and interference, current pain treatments, physical and mental health, and substance use. This information will help to identify the risk of opioid overdose or dependence, and based on these risks, will offer recommendations to support shared care decision-making during treatment planning.

    If you’re interested in participating in this project, please contact opioid.project@camh.ca.

    Canada’s Volunteer Awards call for nominations

    canada volunteer awards

    The call for nominations for Canada’s Volunteer Awards is now open. You’re invited to nominate a not-for-profit organization, an individual, a group, a social enterprise or a business that is making a difference in their community to receive an award. Award recipients will be recognized at a ceremony, and each recipient gets to choose a not for profit organization to receive a grant of $5,000 (regional award) or $10,000 (national award).
    For more information, please visit their site or call 1-877-825-0434. Deadline June 21, 2019.

    Ontario Health Teams: a primary care perspective, June 5, 2019
    Lunch and learn session specifically for AFHTO members, hosted in partnership with Karima Kanani (Partner at Miller Thomson LLP). Register here.

    Mental health and addiction QI collaborative webinar, June 13, 2019
    Join CMHA, AMHO, and AFHTO for a 4-part webinar series on community and primary care QI projects and initiatives with a focus on mental health and addictions. Register here for the first webinar.

    Considerations for Primary Care Teams as a Not-for-Profit Corporation, July 17, 2019
    Join AFHTO & Grant Thornton LLP for their second webinar in the Financial Webinar Series. Register here.

    For Patients: A Skill-Building Webinar on The Habits of Highly Effective Patient Partners, June 12, 2019
    In this webinar, HQO will cover how patients can effectively contribute as patient partners in Ontario’s healthcare system. Learn more here.

  • Examining the Healthcare Experiences of Foreign-Born Older Canadians: Call for Participants

    Examining the Healthcare Experiences of Foreign-Born Older Canadians: A Pilot Study – Call for Participants

    Overview: Although foreign-born older adults (immigrant seniors) are at a higher risk for certain chronic diseases and negative health conditions, limited Canadian studies have examined healthcare experiences of foreign-born older adults (FBOAs), and few have developed or proposed practical solutions to support patient engagement, system navigation ,and care coordination. This is an exploratory study aimed at further understanding FBOA-patient and provider interactions and experiences across the system. The intent is use these pilot data to develop a future program of research and grant application to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research focused on supporting FBOAs and their health care providers.
     
    Requested Support: The University of Waterloo is reaching out to community organizations and partners to seek their preliminary guidance and perspectives. If you currently work with FBOAs, they would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you to learn from your experiences.  Furthermore, if there are any FBOA patients that you think would be interested in sharing their healthcare experiences, please let them know.
     
    This study is being led by Dr. Paul Stolee, with the assistance of Dr. Catherine Tong, whose PhD research focused on the health of foreign-born older immigrants and who has prior experience conducting multilingual studies with older adults. If you are interested in participating or if you have any questions please contact Alison Kernoghan (alison.kernoghan@uwaterloo.ca).

  • Resources for Patient Engagement

    Patient Engagement Surveys  Other Ways to Engage Patients  Tools from Your Peers  Tools from Partner Organizations

    Measuring What Matters to Patients with Patient Experience Surveys

    AFHTO’s measurement initiative, Data to Decisions (D2D), aims to measure quality according to what matters most to patients, according to the Starfield Model of measurement. In 2015, AFHTO and Patients Canada to conducted an online survey, developed with the help of volunteer patients, to determine which indicators of health care quality are most important to patients. Over 200 patients participated. Patients told us that what matters most to them is:

    • Involvement in decisions about their care.
    • Reasonable wait times for appointments.
    • Opportunity to ask questions.
    • Providers who spend enough time with them.
    • Access to their regular care provider
    • Providers who listen to their feelings and concerns.

    Teams who contribute data to D2D have the opportunity to share data about how they are doing in terms of these indicators. One of the easiest ways to obtain this data is through a patient experience survey.

    Once you’ve completed your patient engagement survey, consider sharing the results with your patients. Check out this example from the Centre for Family Medicine FHT in Kitchener! Looking for something NEW to freshen up your patient experience surveys? Try the Patient Perceptions of Patient-Centredness Questionnaire (PPPC) [PDF]

    • The PPPC is a 14-question survey that will let your patients tell you how patient-centered THEY think their care is. Some of the questions are similar to the ones you know from the HQO’s PES, or some of the questions in Data to Decisions – but they dig a little deeper into the relationship between patient and provider, and how that relationship affects the care they receive. It can give you a fresh perspective on the care your team is providing, amplify your patients’ voice, and maybe help relieve some of the “survey fatigue.”
    • But what does it all mean? Once your patients have sent back their surveys, check out the Instructions for Scoring the PPPC [PDF] and enter the data in the PPPC Score Calculator [downloads an Excel workbook]. The calculator will automatically turn your patients’ answers into aggregate scores for the following:
      • Each of the 14 questions
      • Each of the 3 components of patient-centredness
        • How thoroughly their illness experience has been explored
        • Whether they found common ground with their physician
        • Whether they feel understood as a whole person
      • Overall patient-centrednesss.
    • Wondering where the PPPC might fit in with your existing patient experience survey, how the questions relate to D2D indicators, or what to do with the results once you’ve seen them? Check our our FAQ for answers!
    • Consider sharing your results! The more we hear back from teams like yours, the more we can help all teams deliver more patient-centered care. Send your completed calculator worksheet to us at improve@afhto.ca.

    Beyond the Survey: Engaging Your Patients in Quality Improvement

    HQO’s  Insights on Patient Engagement looks at the different ways health care organizations engage their patients. Across the health sector, surveys are the most common way to engage patients: 93% of home care organizations; 79% of interprofessional primary care teams, 74% of long-term care patients, and 66% of hospitals use patient surveys. In addition to surveys, here are some other ways organizations are engaging their patients, and how many interprofessional primary care teams are using them:

    • Focus groups, town halls and community meetings: 23% of iteams
    • Advisory council or similar: 9% of teams
    • Patients on the board: 10% of teams
    • Patient advisors on QI committees: 12% of teams
    • Patients involved in co-design: 9% of teams

    At 10%, interprofessional primary care teams have a small lead when it comes to including patients on their boards. At 23%, interprofessional primary care teams are in the middle of the pack (tied with long-term care) when it comes to engaging patients through focus groups, town halls, and community meetings.  Interprofessional primary care teams lag behind when it comes to including patients in other leadership and planning activities.

    • 80% of  long-term care facilities, 72% of hospitals, and 71% of home care organizations have patient advisory councils.
    • 59% of hospitals, 36% of home care organizations, and 23% of long-term care facilities engage patients in developing their QIP.
    • 43% of home care organizations, 33% of hospitals, and 14% of long-term care facilities include patient advisors in QI committees.
    • 38% of hospitals, 14% of home care organizations, and 14% of long-term care facilities include patients in co-design.

    Health Quality Ontario (2018), Insights on Patient Engagement, p. 2.

    Patient Engagement Tools from Your Peers

    Shared Resources from AFHTO member teams

    These tools were developed by AFHTO member FHTs and NPLCs to facilitate their own patient engagement efforts; the teams have generously agreed to share them with their fellow AFHTO members. Help build our library by sharing your own patient engagement tools and resources.

    AFHTO Conference Presentations on Patient Engagement

    Patient Engagement Tools from Partner Organizations

    Patients Canada

    Patients Canada has pioneered the practice of bringing the authentic patient voice to health care decision-making, ensuring decisions reflect patient priorities.

    Health Quality Ontario

    Health Quality Ontario (HQO) define patient engagement as “patients, families and health providers actively collaborating to improve Ontario’s health system.” They encourage and help providers to work with patients and families to understand and respond to their needs.

    For more information about these tools and resources or other patient engagement best practices, please email Engagement@HQOntario.ca.

    The Change Foundation

    Patient and caregiver engagement is an ongoing focus for The Change Foundation, an independent health policy think-tank that works to inform positive change in Ontario’s health care system.

     

  • Patient Oriented Discharge Summaries: Putting Patients at the Centre of Follow-Up Care

    Please consider sharing this with your Quality Committee, your clinical staff, site coordinators or anyone who is working in your team to make a difference with follow-up after hospitalization.  We understand that teams are sometimes frustrated in their efforts to provide meaningful follow-up for patients after they have been hospitalized.  AFHTO and research partners from the University Health Networks OpenLab are implementing a project that can help with that. The project is called Patient-Oriented Discharge Summaries (PODS) and is free to primary care providers. So far, it has been implemented across the province in 27 hospitals (and counting!).  It was funded by the Adopting Research to Improve Care (ARTIC) Program, which is run by the Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario and Health Quality Ontario. ARTIC fast-tracks the adoption of proven health care interventions into broader clinical practice across the health system.

    What are PODS?

    Patient Oriented Discharge Summaries (PODS) are simple forms that ensure patients have the information they need before going home (see sample).  These forms were co-designed with patients and caregivers, and they are provided to patients when they are discharged from hospital. A PODS form contains five key pieces of information for the patient and their caregivers about what care the patient needs after they get home:

    • Signs and symptoms to watch out for
    • Medication instructions
    • Appointments
    • Routine and lifestyle changes
    • Telephone numbers and info to have handy

    PODS have already had positive results at hospitals where they have been implemented. Early results show that they have a positive impact on patient understanding and adherence to follow up appointments with primary care following discharge from hospital (read an article about it here).

    How can I get PODS for my patients?

    Primary care providers can get some of the benefits of PODS in a few different ways:

    1. Get in touch with your local participating hospital: see the list of hospitals who are already participating and contact the local lead to learn more about what they are doing.
    2. Get your hospital(s) on the project: If your local hospital is not participating in the project, perhaps you can persuade them to inquire. The PODS team would be happy to hear from them!
    3. Ask your patients if they received a PODS: If you know a patient has been in hospital, ask them if they have received a PODS and discuss it with them.
    4. Provide PODS handouts to your patients: If you are referring a patient for hospitalization, give them the PODS brochure so they can take action on their own behalf to get the information they need. You could do this even if your hospital is NOT participating in the project. Handouts will be ready in early fall and we welcome anyone who wants to design or co-brand them with us.
    5. Customize the PODS with your team/hospital logo: The PODS team will be happy to work with you to customize the form with your logo and local information.

    I need more information!

    Think you might be ready to get started, but want to know more? Check out the PODS Online Toolkit or email the research team. Want to learn more about how the PODS project is going? Check out their presentation at the AFHTO 2017 conference. Want to get better at tracking follow-up after hospitalization? Check out these ideas and resources from AFHTO.  

  • Input Needed for Family Caregiver Engagement Snapshot by The Change Foundation

    As part of their 2015-2020 strategic plan, The Change Foundation is working to improve the experience of family caregivers as they help their family members transition through and interact with Ontario’s health and community care systems. As part of this work, they’re aiming to compile a baseline snapshot of established family caregiver engagement activities in the province. This information will help identify models of engagement between family caregivers and providers in which families are actively incorporated into shared decision making. They also plan to update the information again in 2 or 3 years. They’d like to know how your organization is engaging with patients and their families on an ongoing basis. If you have information regarding family councils, caregiver support groups, or caregiver engagement activities within your primary care team, please contact Cayla Baarda, Research Assistant, at cbaarda@changefoundation.com or 1-416-205-1353.

  • Webinar – Introducing the Electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (ePRO) Tool.

    Researchers from the Bridgepoint Collaboratory for Research and Innovation presented a webinar to introduce the Electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (ePRO) Tool to AFHTO members. This tool allows patients and providers to set outcome goals together, after which patients are able to track and report on their progress towards these goals using an app on their mobile device (tablet or phone). The researchers are hoping to recruit 22 sites for a clinical trial scheduled to begin in January 2017. Drs. Carolyn Steele-Gray, Walter Wodchis, and Pauline Boeckxstaens presented the tool and some information about the planned clinical trial. Slides from the webinar  and a video recording of the webinar (see below – length 1:03:53) can help you determine whether your team might be suited to participate in the trial.  More information about the tool, including some short videos, can be found here. If you have any questions, please contact catherine.macdonald@afhto.ca.

    About the project:

    Patient reported outcomes (PRO) are increasingly recognized as a major indicator of quality in health care. PROs can provide insight into the impact of treatments and interventions on a person’s health that go beyond traditional provider chosen outcomes. They may include vital signs, disease specific symptoms, functionality, pain, general well-being, among other measures in high risk patients. Patients themselves have identified the health of their informal caregiver (often the spouse of a senior patient) to be a significant metric in terms of assessing whether their own current treatment/management strategy was effective.

  • Patient Decision Aids

    Patient decision aids are tools that help people become involved in decision making by making explicit the decision that needs to be made, providing information about the options and outcomes, and by clarifying personal values. They are designed to complement, rather than replace, counseling from a health practitioner. The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute has developed a resource library and website of Patient Decision Aids for clinicians to use with patients.

    How can I find decision aids?

    Where are the online tutorials?

    What’s the evidence?

  • HQO Patient and Family Council Guides

    In consultation with patients and providers, Health Quality Ontario, has developed a series of guides aimed at helping advisory councils in any health sector get started and maintain momentum. By providing practical tips and tools, the guides assist patient and family advisory councils in focusing on

    For links to other resources available to help create and sustain an effective patient and family advisory council, visit Health Quality Ontario’s hub of patient engagement tools and resources.

  • Rules of Engagement: Meaningful patient engagement initiatives

    Rules of Engagement: Lessons from PANORAMA [PDF] serves as a resource for health providers and professionals, outlining key moments in the engagement process that require extra thought and preparation. These recommendations can help ensure that patient engagement initiatives deliver results for organizations, and also make participants feel valued and respected in the process. The PANORAMA Panel was a ground-breaking patient engagement project undertaken by The Change Foundation. Over the course of two years, 31 panelists from across Ontario met to share their lived experiences and insights as patients and family caregivers on a range of issues related to improving people’s healthcare experience. This project consolidated the essential points to consider when starting or running a patient engagement initiative. Report and Related Products

  • Statistics Canada recruiting for 2016 Census

    The next mandatory census will take place in May 2016 and Statistics Canada will be hiring approximately 35,000 people across the country to assist in its collection. As such, members are asked to post the documents below in their waiting rooms so patients are made aware of these job opportunities.

    Update : Community Supporter Toolkit– products and resources to help you and your organization spread the word about the benefits and positive impact of the census on your community. Additionally, members are also encouraged to complete the census to have a direct impact on gathering the data needed to plan, develop and evaluate relevant programs and services. Census information is important for all communities and is vital for planning services such as schools, daycare, family services, housing, police services, fire protection, roads, public transportation and skills training for employment.