Lessons Learned: The Patient Safety Advisory Council Winnipeg Regional Health Authority

1. Lessons Learned:The Patient Safety Advisory CouncilWinnipeg Regional Health Authority Corinne Stevens - Patient Voice Facilitator Jillian Paulmark - Co-chair Patient Safety Advisory Council Ed Mendoza – Patient Safety Advisory Council Member

2. Lessons Learned: Learning Within Organizations? • Creating Learning Organizations (Peter Senge) • Need to expand their capacity to create results they truly desire • Where new & expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured • Where collective aspirations are set free • Where people are continually learning how to learn together Need to discover how to tap people’s commitment & capacity to learn at all levels in an organization = Building relationships, identifying the problems & working together to find the solutions!

3. Why Partner with Patients/Family Members? • The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) / Patient Safety Team has formulated a Regional Integrated Patient Safety Strategy (RIPSS) • 1. Promoting Culture Change • 2. Learning From Clinical Practice • 3. Promoting Change in Care Delivery • 4. Direct Involvement of Patients

4. Why Partner with Patients/Family Members? • The value of their work is that they look to the big picture where we in healthcare often look to the component parts we break things down into. The challenge is to honour the learning while finding a way to make it fit into our mandate and structure.

5. Winnipeg Regional Health AuthorityPatient Safety Advisory Council • Formed 2 years ago • Members solicited that had some experience with a healthcare system failure. • The idea was to utilize this knowledge towards promoting potential learning opportunities arising from systemic reviews of these experiences.

6. Winnipeg Regional Health AuthorityPatient Safety Advisory Council • The original make-up was to be between 12-20 council members. • The mandate of the council is to advise the patient safety team, through the WRHA support staff, on patient safety issues & the Regional Integrated Patient Safety Strategy. These support staff then advise the Chief Patient Safety Officer who likewise channels this advice to Senior Management of the WRHA.

7. Winnipeg Regional Health AuthorityPatient Safety Advisory Council • After 2 yrs. of operation Senior Management of the WRHA has asked us to complete a review of PSAC. • What is working? • What is not working? • What should we continue to do? • What do we need to do differently? This review has begun & will look to be completed by the end of September.

8. Lessons Learned • Members come into the council for a variety of reasons bringing with them a plethora of ideas of how to bring about system & culture change. • We have been challenged by some members desiring an advocacy role as opposed to our mandated advisory role.

9. Lessons Learned • When you are creating something new from the ground up it is often hard to know how much structure you need. • Originally we had very little structure. The desire was to not stifle the passion & energy members brought to the table. That has worked for some and not so well for others. As part of the review we are looking at what structure/s we need for the functioning of PSAC.

10. Lessons Learned • Remember we are asking people, we in healthcare have harmed to partner with us. What drives these people may have an intensity & an urgency due to the healthcare system failure they experienced which is different than on other types of patient & family advisory councils.

11. Lessons Learned • These people are survivors. They are strong to have persevered through such tremendous adversity. Supporting & working with such a group has challenges for those in a leadership or support role. • Council members have shown to the WRHA that they often think about aspects or issues in unique & refreshing ways that we in healthcare may not. It is important to collaborate to find solutions to the problems.

12. The Work of the Patient Safety Advisory Council • Patient Representatives Working Group • Aid in the hiring of patient safety personnel • Educational presentations- Sharing personal stories • Hand hygiene steering group • Patient perspective on Medical Resident Performance • Information tables at shopping centres • Patient Safety & Quality Research Committee • Advising an Acute Care Hospital on the redesign of their emergency department • Medication Reconciliation Project • Critical Incident Phone Line

13. Contact Information Corinne Stevens Patient Voice Facilitator Winnipeg Regional Health Authority 204-926-7122 cstevens1@wrha.mb.ca Patient Safety Advisory Council Winnipeg Regional Health Authority 204-926-7090 psac@wrha.mb.ca