CKHA embracing connection between patient and family-centered care and patient safety
Hospital strives to engage patients in patient safety improvement efforts
Thursday June 25, 2009 -- Jason Thompson
Staff at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) are embracing the connection between patient and family-centered care and patient safety with a firm belief that a key ingredient is missing when the patient isn’t included in patient safety improvement efforts.

“In order to improve patient safety, you have to do it from a patient and family-centered care perspective,” says Denise Dodman, a professional practice nurse at CKHA, a Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) subscriber.

“CKHA has a foundation and a philosophy for patient and family-centered care. We’ve embraced that approach to care and we really believe that there is a direct link between patient and family-centered care and patient safety.”

Keeping the lines of communication open with patients and their families is a major undertaking at CKHA, which provides patients with a pamphlet upon admission that explains what they as patients can do to help ensure their safety.

For healthcare providers, it’s also about putting yourself in the patient’s shoes.

“It’s about thinking about it from the perspective of the patient and their family. What does safety mean when you’re the person receiving our services?” Dodman says.

In partnership with Dr. Deborah Tregunna, a national patient safety expert with York University, CKHA will also be talking to patients through focus groups to hear first-hand from patients about their hospital experiences and what it means to feel safe.

“Certainly we’re talking to patients, but we’d like to do it in a formal way — one where we can actually capture some data and then share that,” Dodman says, adding that by listening to patients, there is ability for them to tug at your heartstrings when they share their patient safety stories and experiences.

“If we have developed the kind of relationship that allows people to question their care, they will help save us and themselves from error.”

Dodman says the patient and family-centered approach also has an impact on patient and staff satisfaction.

“When you mesh those two together and you know for a fact that what you’re doing is in line with what a patient and their family hoped you would do — your sense of satisfaction as a care provider goes up.”

Registered practical nurse Stacy Srokosz agrees.

“It works,” says Srokosz. “That was one of my reasons for becoming a nurse — that patient contact and those life-lessons that you hear.”

Srokosz was recently chosen as one of four Ontario RPNs to take part in the Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario’s 2009 Leadership/Clinical Practice Fellowship Initiative.

Along with help from her team of mentors, comprised of Dodman, Tregunna and Nancy Homewood, co-ordinator of quality, risk and patient safety at CKHA, the topic Srokosz will be focusing on through the fellowship is improving patient safety through staff engagement in rehab and complex continuing care.

Click here for more information on Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.

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