Sharing and Caring Together: Hospital Celebrates Another Year of Patient and Family Centred Care

oct-3-2018-sharing-and-caring-2018

Jean Bartkowiak, President and CEO, Bonnie Nicholas, Patient and Family Centred Care Lead, Keith Taylor, Co-Chair of the Patient Family Advisory Council and Matt Simeoni, Chair of the Hospital's Board of Directors, were at the Hospital's 9th Annual Sharing and Caring Together Exhibition to celebrate the Hospital's continued commitment to Patient and Family Centred Care and the successes that have been achieved.

By Maryanne Matthews - October 3, 2018

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre recently celebrated a continued commitment to Patient and Family Centred Care and the successes that have been achieved at the 9th Annual Sharing and Caring Together Exhibition held on Thursday, September 27th.

Patient and Family Centred Care (PFCC) is the provision of care that is respectful of, and responsive to, individual patient and family preferences, needs and values, and ensures that patient is at the centre of all clinical decisions.

“Our Hospital has come a long way since beginning the Patient and Family Centred Care journey, and continues to be a priority for everyone on the team, including the Board of Directors,” said Matt Simeoni, Chair, Hospital Board of Directors. “It is inspiring to see the level of dedication to PFCC held by all staff, physicians and volunteers, and the passion applied to enhancing experiences for patients and their families. PFCC is about being Healthy Together.”  

In 2011, PFCC initiatives earned our Hospital a Leading Practice designation for Patient & Family Centred Care from Accreditation Canada. That designation has been dutifully maintained ever since.

“This past year, our focus has been to extend PFCC to improve and measure the quality of care we provide,” said Jean Bartkowiak, President and CEO. “We understand that ‘quality of care’ is multidimensional, and we’ve developed a Quality Health Care Framework designed to both define quality of care and give us a way to measure it. PFCC is a key component of our framework, and plays a significant role in ensuring our Hospital is providing quality patient care across all areas and departments.”

The Patient and Family Advisory Council, consisting of nearly 90 diverse and dedicated volunteers, is key to helping our Hospital achieve its goals.

“As PFAs, we are involved in every area of the Hospital and we do our best to represent the needs of all the patients in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario,” said Keith Taylor, Patient Family Advisory Council Co-Chair. “Having such a large number of dedicated PFAs to pull from allows us to place our PFAs on projects based not only on their interests, but on the skills and experiences they offer.”

To learn more about Patient and Family Centred Care, or how to become a Patient Family Advisor, please visit www.tbrhsc.net.

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