HSA launches committee to improve health service
(CNS): The Health Services Authority has launched a Patient and Family Advisory Committee, which will advise on strategies and initiatives to improve the patient experience at HSA facilities. The committee includes representative from CINICO, the Health Insurance Association of the Cayman Islands and the Seafarers Association, as well as patients, or family members of patients, that have used HSA services within the last three years.
At the committee’s first meeting this week HSA CEO Lizzette Yearwood told members, “Your role is to help our organisation see things through the patient’s eyes, giving us valuable input and perspective to deliver quality healthcare to our patients. The purpose of the group is to give patients and families a voice in their health care.”
The formation of the committee is part of the authority’s strategy to enhance patients’ experience at all its facilities, to improve services, standards, quality of care and to raise the public profile of the HSA as the premier healthcare system in the Cayman Islands.
Committee members will serve as liaisons between the hospital and their groups to share community members’ stories, both positive and negative, to help improve processes.
“As health care providers, we have the best of intentions and we do a really good job,” Yearwood said. “But there is room for improvement, and we want to hear directly from patients and families to learn how we can provide the most extraordinary patient experience every time.”
HSA Medical Director, Dr Delroy Jefferson, welcomed the initiative and said that “the partnership among physicians, patients, families and other providers, will improve the care experience”.
He added, “Providing patient and family centered care is at the heart of everything we do. We do the best when we involve patients and families in their health care. We are taking the concept a step further by inviting them to be involved at a planning and development phase of initiatives that will impact their care and experience at the HSA.”
Committee advisers must participate in an orientation to receive training about patient confidentiality and their roles and responsibilities. The council will meet monthly and members will serve for two years.
Members of the Patient and Family Advisory Committee and HSA staff at the first council meeting on Tuesday, 12 September
Category: Medical and Health
