Was talking to the Patient Relations and was directed to a new(?) department at Alberta Health called Patient Engagement which includes Patient Advisory and Patient Experience sub-groups. The apparent idea is to involve patients in building “Collaborative Relationships” with the health system and I’ve downloaded a copy of their guide: “A Resource Toolkit for Engaging Patient and Families at the Planning Table”.
Next step is for the system to recruit Patient and Family Advisors and then set up project teams to bring the patient voice to the planning table.
From the guide:
“Why Engage?
An essential ingredient to high quality healthcare is is actively including the voice of patients & families to improve quality, safety and health outcomes. There is also a growing movement within the Canadian public to be involved in decisions about how healthcare services are designed and delivered.
Engagement Happens in Two Ways
- Patient and family Centred Care: Improving quality outcomes by helping care providers engage effectively with patients at the point of Care
- Patient Engagement: improving quality outcomes by effectively engaging with patients at the planning and evaluation table.
The institute for Patient and Family Centred Care names the following as core concepts in P&FCC:
- People are treated with dignity and respect.
- Health care providers communicate and share complete and unbiased information with patients and families in ways that are affirming and useful.
- Patients and family members build on their strengths by participating in experiences that enhance control and independence.
- Collaboration among patients, family members and providers occurs in policy and program development and professional education as well as in the delivery of care.
Long Version of the toolkit http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/info/pf/pe/if-pf-pe-pfcc-resource-kit-ext-web.pdf
I’m going to leave off here as my experience with AHS has been the complete opposite of the four points above. More soon.
Update on my heart CT. There’s been a bit of an enlargement in my aortic root and the nearby aneurysm has grown a tiny bit too. Surgeon suggests I’m no longer a good candidate for further repairs. Will post his report here when I can.
Scottx5's Blog 
Comments
excuse me but in the contect of all that has gone before, this sounds surreal…dada maybe.
a sop to the surgeon’s report writing you off? whatever it is, I’d be hard put to trust them
Hi Vanessa, yeah, the surgeon was a bit gruff but he doesn’t pretend to give a shit. He’s mad at the rest of the system for delaying my arrival to surgery for so long. First time I had a smallish heart attack while waiting for the clinic staff to find a memo and the second time I had the good taste to die in hospital just after signing a DO RESUSCITATE order.
With Leslie’s job cut at the college we are going to leave Alberta and head back to Vancouver Island. Was thinking about getting involved in some sort of patient advocacy thing here but would rather spend time thinking about real stuff like like politics and stay away from fantasies of humanizing the medical system. Medical isn’t a community anyway. You are either a patient or someone who bumbles around pretending to care and made helpless by a need for rationality in an irrational world.
How is your new place? We are looking at leaving the house owning class and going condo or apartment.