A unique initiative from the Erie St. Clair Community Care Access Centre has attracted the attention of provincial health officials.
Ontario's Patient Ombudsman Christine Elliott paid a recent visit to the local Community Care Access Centre, and was especially impressed with their patient advisors.
These advisors are volunteers who have been previous CCAC patients, or are caregivers for other patients who use the centre's resources. While other CCACs have patient advisors, Senior Director of Patient Care Kelly Robertson says no one else involves the volunteers as much as Erie St. Clair does.
"We have patient advisors who are actually participating in interviews for new staff, and orientation for new staff," says Robertson. "They sit on our finance committees and our quality-related committees."
The Erie St. Clair CCAC also boasts the highest patient satisfaction score of all access centres across the province, at 94.3%. This score is reached through surveys and interviews with current patients. Robertson adds the surveys go deeper than simply asking for a yes-or-no answer from patients.
"They will specifically ask, 'how was your overall service? Did you feel involved in setting up your care plan? Did your care co-ordinator discuss what was most important to you, and your safety plan in the home,'" says Robertson.
She adds they've seen a 2% bump in their satisfaction score since introducing the patient advisor program.
