Oshawa — Lakeridge Health today released the report of its Patient Experience Panel, which makes wide-reaching recommendations to improve the patient experience in the Oshawa Emergency Department, in Patient Relations and on social media.
“We’ve set a goal of leading Canada in the patient and family experience. This report makes it clear we have some work ahead of us, but we’re eager to get to it,” said Interim president and CEO Tom McHugh. “I know that our staff — many of whom contributed their own ideas to this report — are already working hard to carry out these recommendations.”
The report focuses on improving the patient experience at LHO as well as improving the formal patient relations process. This includes:
- Changing the culture of staff, physicians and volunteers to make all patient and family visits to Lakeridge Health the best experience possible,
- Making the patient relations process more transparent and accessible for patients and family
- Improving the timeliness with which patients are seen in the ED
- Recommending education and training to improve communications among staff, physicians and volunteers and patients and family
- Making better use of social media to respond to patients.
View the full text of the report and its recommendations
“Many of the changes the panel has recommended are already underway,” said Lakeridge Health Board Chair Valentine Lovekin. “Some of the other recommendations will take more time. But we want families in Durham to know that their hospital took decisive and meaningful action on their behalf — and I’m grateful to Tom and our leadership team for all their thoughtful work on this.”
A few of the report’s recommendations already underway at the hospital include:
- Redesigning the ED to better meet the needs of the hospital’s mental health and addictions patients
- Immediately improving signage in the ED
- Introducing a patient passport, which will give patients a clear understanding of what to expect during their time in the ED and
- Doing a better job of connecting social media practices into the patient relations department to gather patient input.
The Patient Experience Panel was created in March 2016 to act on patient complaints the hospital received through patient relations and on social media. Initially, the panel included Dr. Marko Duic and Dawn Sindenberg who reviewed the ER patient experience, Mary Lynne MacMaster, who reviewed the patient relations experience and Pat Rich, who looked at how the hospital reviews patient issues over social media. Later, a fifth expert — patient experience advisor Robbie Stewart — was brought in to add a patient voice.
“As we start to dig into this work, we’ll report back to the community on our progress,” said McHugh. “Our staff are already responding positively by working even harder for our community — so I have no doubt the people who come through our doors will start to see reals, positive changes right away.”
Lakeridge Health’s 2016-2021 Strategic plan “Excellence — Every Moment, Every Day” is available online on the Lakeridge Health Strategy website.
Quick Facts
- Lakeridge Health has been accredited with exemplary standing with a score of 99.4 per cent. Exemplary standing is given to organizations that go above and beyond the requirements of Accreditation Canada.
- The hospital’s stroke services achieved Stroke Distinction, Accreditation Canada’s highest rating for stroke care.
- The Institute for Quality Management in Healthcare has awarded Lakeridge Health’s laboratory top marks (99.6%).
- Lakeridge Health has been named one of the GTA’s Top 100 Employers for the last two years.
- The Durham Regional Cancer Centre has been ranked one of the top three cancer centers in Ontario since 2014.
For more information contact:
Lakeridge Health Communications
T. 905.576.8711 extension 4317
communications@lakeridgehealth.on.ca
