How Women’s College Hospital Elevates the Patient Voice in Safer Care
Canadian Patient Safety Week (CPSW) has officially begun! In recognition of this year’s theme, “All Voices for Safer Care,” HIROC is proud to spotlight an inspiring Subscriber team that truly embodies putting collaboration at the forefront.
When we connected with the Quality, Safety & Patient Experience Team at Women’s College Hospital (WCH), we were eager to learn more about the many activities they had planned for CPSW 2025. One that stood out to us was their Senior Leadership Safety Walkarounds, an innovative initiative designed to meaningfully engage patients and the hospital’s community in the process of improving care and safety.
To learn more about this, we were fortunate to speak with Cara Stanley, Patient Experience Coordinator; Safiya Tohob, Quality Specialist; Chandra Farrer, Quality Manager; and Laura Pozzobon, Director, Quality, Safety & Patient Experience.
Here’s what they had to say…
The theme this year for CPSW is All Voices for Safer Care. What does this mean to you?
Healthcare Excellence Canada’s Canadian Patient Safety Week theme, All Voices for Safer Care, highlights the vital role of collaboration in delivering safe and high-quality care. It reminds us that diverse perspectives are essential to truly understand the question: what is safe care?
Building genuine partnerships with the people who work at WCH and the people we serve helps us drive the changes that matter most for those working within the system and for those accessing its services. Our hope is that this year’s theme inspires meaningful dialogue and lasting improvements, so that including multiple viewpoints in conversations about safety becomes ingrained in the way that we approach safer patient care.
Tell us about your Senior Leadership Safety Walkarounds?
Senior Leadership Safety Walkarounds (SLSW) are a safety best practice that provides an opportunity for staff, physicians, volunteers and learners to engage with Senior Leaders in open discussions about safety.
Every quarter, a member from the Senior Leadership Team, alongside a Quality, Safety and Patient Experience Team member, joins a team huddle or “walkaround” in a specific area. SLSWs are conducted in a structured format where senior leaders interact with team members for about 15-20 minutes to learn about safety concerns and areas for improvement in their clinical areas. This is also an opportunity to celebrate everyday wins, good catches and our people’s commitment to safety. Each clinic and department participates in one SLSW annually to further enhance the safety culture at WCH.
We know that during CPSW, Experience Advisors will join WCH leaders on their walkarounds to visit clinical areas and speak with team members about strengths and opportunities related to safety.
What are you hoping this pairing will achieve?
Experience Advisors (EAs) are Women’s College Hospital patients, care partners, family, and community members. EAs contribute their time to work with WCH leaders, healthcare providers and staff to help shape care, programs, and services. They provide the patient, family, care partner and/or community member perspective by sharing their knowledge and experiences.
We are excited to have EAs join our SLSWs during this year’s Canadian Patient Safety Week. Their participation in these walks reinforces our organization’s shared core patient values of empathy and compassion; respect and inclusion; active participation and collaboration; accountability and transparency; and quality, safety and excellence.
The perspectives of EAs are embedded in a lot of the work we do to improve patient care and safety at Women’s College Hospital. Including EAs in our SLSWs was a natural next step to ensuring we are partnering with patients in our safety practices.
Can you share a real-life aha moment that’s come from these kinds of patient engagement activities?
This year, we have been working with Experience Advisors (EAs) in our Canadian Patient Safety Week planning. The perspectives of the EAs have been instrumental in ensuring that the planned activities are designed for patient involvement. This includes our interactive activities, education materials, as well as our social media campaign. Their insights have encouraged WCH’s Quality, Safety and Patient Experience team to ensure that our activities are patient-centred and highlight that everyone has a role in delivering safe care.
Do you have a tip for other organizations looking to try something similar in terms of pairing patient voices and leadership, beyond CPSW?
Patient engagement is essential to revolutionizing healthcare. Our organization’s approach to engagement is broad and inclusive, recognizing that lived experience can guide change at every level of the organization. It has become second nature for WCH team members across the organization to embed patient and community perspectives in the work that we do. Our Framework for Patient Engagement serves as a way to highlight the many ways that WCH team members can consult, involve, collaborate or share leadership with EAs, patients, care partners and the community.
Find more information on WCH's Framework for Patient Engagement.