As a passionate patient advisor, proud rebel and someone who relies on the care and services AHS provides, I was lucky enough to be part of the D4AHS team, working alongside them on their project on moving the Patient and Family Centered Care strategy forward and make it more system wide than what it is currently at.
The sessions started with me sharing my current reality in AHS through roleplaying. Where it takes me approximately 45 minutes by bus on a good day to simply know my A1c result. Or the 20 or so minute bus ride to see my doctor who walks in, tells me my A1c result and walks out all in a minute or less. Then I shared "MaYAS Dream' of what a more PFCC focused system AHS can become.
Taking a risk is hard, stepping out of comfort zones is daunting but at the end of the day that’s how change occurs.
So I applaud and thank all those that found the time to participant in the sessions by thinking outside of the box and boldly asking yourself what is something that I can do that will impact the patient and family centered care experience in a positive way?
These three codesign sessions, one in Calgary, one virtual and one in Edmonton over the last 2 weeks brought tangible and achievable ideas that a committee or consultations takes at least 6 months to a year to come with.
My measure of success through all of this is that soon AHS will be more in tune and aware of how they deliver the patient and family centered care experience. Because at the end of the day, we need to challenge our beliefs and question our thinking in order to improve the services and care we provide to the people we treat.
So I ask you this… What is something you can do tomorrow to improve the PFCC values in AHS? Because we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We can’t wait anymore about validation and approval to get these brilliant ideas to be activated. We may blame the system and point fingers at each other and find excuses but we are the system ultimately.
It’s about getting stuff done, together!
@mayapajevic