Being Part of the Solution

I spent the last two days being part of a rapid improvement event (RIE) which is part of the St-Boniface Hospital transformation - the road to perfect care. It was fabulous. The goal of our particular RIE was to come up with solutions to get former patients and their family members more involved in the transformation of St-Boniface Hospital. It was two days of brainstorming, discussion and solution finding. I loved it.

I'm not going to delve into everything discussed but I will say that, as always, it comes down to good communication. We've done quite a lot of work over the past four months to get the message out to the public that we are looking for their stories, their experiences and their help in making improvements that focus on improving the patient experience. Public service announcements, information inserts in patient surveys, some radio promotion. Ultimately, though, the best way to get a former patient to take part in this kind of exercise is to ask them personally. That means a really good communication with frontline health care workers who work with patients and their families every day.

It's pretty exciting to be part of this kind of event. To feel like you're contributing to something that is going to have an actual benefit for you and your family in the future. As one of my colleagues noted during today's session - we all need health care at some point in our lives. It would be nice to believe that we're never going to have to be in hospital for anything other than good things like having babies - but that's unlikely. If we can keep working toward perfect patient care at St-Boniface Hospital - it will benefit future St-Boniface Hospital patients, sure, but the lessons learned here will be shared throughout the region and the country since St B is one of only a small handful (I think three) of hospitals in Canada doing this work.

We're already seeing huge improvements in the emergency department and surgery and that's just the beginning. With the very important input of former patients and their families, the work being done will become even more focused on their experiences, past and future. As a communicator, I feel very lucky to be part of something so important and so far reaching.