Quality Improvement and Planning

At St. Joseph’s, we are committed to ensuring that the patient, resident and family caregiver voice is included in decisions about the quality of our care and service from the very beginning of quality improvement and program planning initiatives. Patient and family engagement is also an expectation from major health care governing bodies including Health Quality Ontario, the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, The Change Foundation and Accreditation Canada.

Patient and family engagement enables:

Gaining essential insight and ideas for improvement; seeing experiences of patients, residents and families and the need for change through their eyes.
Improved communication between all parties
Changes made in health care services are meaningful to all parties.

Four team members sitting round a table collaborating on a document

Who Are Patient and Family Partners?

A Patient and Family Partner is an individual who has had a recent (within the past three years) experience of being a patient, resident, or family caregiver at St. Joseph’s. Family caregivers are family, friends or neighbours who the patient/resident choses as a partner(s) in their care.

Being a patient and family partner is “exploring and learning together along a process.”

Family Caregiver Partner

Areas where patient/family partners may be included:

Patient care service processes
Program processes
Education
Patient safety
Environment and design
Quality improvement initiatives
Organizational processes
Staff recruitment
Committees/councils
Research (Lawson) development of research