This month, we share stories from patient partners in Northern BC, invite you to watch recordings from Quality Forum 2021, celebrate 15 years of Patients for Patient Safety Canada and pass along an invitation to share what excellence in health care means to you.

Patient Partners Changing Health Care for the Better

We love hearing about the impact of our patient partners and learning about what motivates them to join health care partners in improving quality of care.

Northern Health has been profiling its patient partners in a blog post series titled “Patient partners changing health care for the better.” We’re excited to share the stories with you so that you can join us in cheering on our northern network members. Here are the first few:

With a firm belief behind the need for transparency and communication, Roxanne Chmelyk (top) has been involved with many programs and activities focused on improving the quality of life for seniors. Read Roxanne’s story. 

Rita Wiebe (middle) has served as a patient partner in various capacities for over a decade, including ensuring that communications to patients are person-centred. Read Rita’s story.

And after attending an orientation session and “never looking back,” John Grogan (bottom) has joined numerous projects locally and across the province, many of which involve telehealth, virtual care and improving care in rural communities. Read John’s story. 

We’re so proud of Roxanne, Rita and John! Be on the lookout for more patient partner stories in our next newsletter.

Videos from Quality Forum 2021 are Now Available

The BC Patient Safety & Quality Council, which administers PVN, has shared videos from its Quality Forum conference which took place last month. You can now watch plenary presentations from Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, Agnes Binagwaho and Helen Bevan.

You can also watch videos from Health Talks, where speakers share their hopes for health care using the PechaKucha 20×20 format where they display 20 photos for exactly 20 seconds each.

You might be especially interested in hearing from Robin McGee, a patient partner and author of the award-winning book The Cancer Olympics, who hopes for better diagnostic and post-harm practices, as well as Sumter/April Sumter-Freitag, who hopes that racialized and marginalized people will receive better care and that believing patients will become the norm.

Watch Health Talks Recordings

Happy Anniversary, Patients for Patient Safety Canada! 

For 15 years now, Patients for Patient Safety Canada has championed the patient voice and shared lived experiences to advance patient safety. We’d like to congratulate and thank everyone who has dedicated time through the program to making care as safe as possible.

You can send an anniversary message to Patients for Patient Safety Canada here.

What Does Excellence in Health Care Mean to You?

Earlier this month, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement amalgamated into a new organization called Healthcare Excellence Canada (HEC).

HEC is calling on everyone committed to health care excellence to join them in shaping the future of quality and safety. You can complete a survey to provide your input and help set a course for the new organization and its goal of widespread and lasting improvement in patient safety, as well as all the dimensions of health care excellence.

Complete the Survey