Being on a Hospital Advisory Committee

[A Former User]

I'm on an advisory committee at my local hospital and have reached the 3rd year. This committee has 5 meetings a year, 2 hours per meeting.

The meeting package usially consists of items characterized as Information or Discussion, as opposed to Problem Solving, Planning, or Decisions. There is feedback at the end of each meeting and each year.

1. Their motto is "Be Excellent" and the first item on the list this month is Patients as Partners.

and yet this item is about hiring a group for building a culture that promotes accountability, fosters innovation, and delivers improved patient experience scores and quality outcomes.

2. They aso have Service Review on the agenda - a review of clinical programs - "A steering committee including hospital and physician leadership is guiding the process. A more comprehensive review is planned once the short list of areas is determined to include program, patient and community input."

I wonder if anyone has advice on how to tackle trying to respond to issues like this. Patients seem to be sidelined, there is no effort to develop the capacity of patients who volunteer.

Is it better to bundle the issues or deal with them one by one? I am pretty tactful, but not smooth with issues like this. I also wonder if it's a good idea to ask them for a more complete idea of how patients are involved. They did score well with Accred Canada, so there must be more than is visible (I hope)

In Ontario all hospitals must have a Patient and Family Advisory Group. Are they common all over Canada?

[A Former User]

Yes, the service review does interest me. My concern is that the review starts well upstream of any patient involvement. Patients and community are only involved once the committee has determined a short list.

My issue is that patients are involved too late, and yet I don't want to be the only thorn in the side of the hospital admin.

It's the same in the 'Patients as Partners' segment. They are talking about hiring a large corporation to deliver a change in culture that will improve patient experience scores and quality outcomes. I don't see any patient partnership there.

I'd also like to ask about the scope of patient involvement - they have a number of committees, and hospital volunteers too.

So it's going to be a 2 hour meeting, tightly scheduled, with about 20 people around the table - if it were equal time we would all have 6 minutes, but this meeting is centered on presentations from hospital people.

[A Former User]

Hi I am in NS and we have just implemented patient advisors across the province. This is a new initiative for all on the committee. They have had some challenges getting patients to fit this role.

We are looking a little at service review in that they did a patient survey to get patients opinions on the service they received. Is this the kind of thing you are speaking about Annette? As this is fairly new in NS we are now reviewing the survey to decide how to proceed.

As I fill this role, which is new for me, I am glad I have a medical background so I understand the medical process and terminology. I always have to remind myself I am there as a patient advisor

[A Former User]

Hi All

The meeting is over now and all went well, basically because a number of the other people there felt the same way. When I raised the issue of meaningful participation they also spoke to that point.

We are an assortment of patients and representatives of community groups. The groups felt a need for more involvement because they are providing support and services for the long term; the patients because they want to be involved and 10 hours a year just doesn't foster that.

By the end of the meeting the hospital had quite a different idea of what the group wanted in terms of involvement.

We also had some controversy about location because the boardroom was less accessible and hard to find, so we are going back to the meeting room, which the hospital will set up more as a board room style seating to facilitate discussion - better than the round tables set up for sure.