Patient Family Advisory Council

Patient Family Advisory Council

 Sun Country Health Region  has established its first Patient Family Advisory Council (PFAC). This group meets monthly, with twelve active patient family advisers and four staff advisors.

 The Patient and Family Advisory Council continue recruiting patient family advisers for the group.

 Patients and their families can enhance the quality and safety of health care, partnering with health care professionals and other staff to share stories of their experience in health care facilities and how they felt it could have be improved.

 Patient family advisers serve on regional committees, working groups, as well as Rapid Process Improvement Workshops, Kaizen Events along with other Lean initiatives.

 Advisers are team players. After learning and understanding the purpose of these work groups, advisers can greatly contribute to the teams, providing a viewpoint from the patient and family perspective.

Visitors

Open Family Presence Policyent2Body

tPageMiddleContent​Sun Country Health Region is committed to   Open Family Visitor Guest Presence and Patient and Family Centered  approach to care and recognizes that families and guests play an important role in the health and well-being of patients during hospitalization and in long term care facilities, we encourage patients to visit with their families and guests to the degree they feel comfortable.

 Families and Guests

We ask that families and guests respect the following guidelines when visiting patients:

• Families and guests are welcome 24 hours a day according to patient preference.

• The number of people welcome at the bedside at any one time will be determined in collaboration with the patient, family and inter-professional care team. In situations where the room is shared, this discussion will include the other patient and his/her family. To ensure safety, consideration will also be given to the physical limitations of the space.

• Families and guests may be asked to follow patient safety and security protocols.

• Alternative guests (such as pets and/or animal-assisted therapy) must be pre-arranged with the inter-professional team.

• Families and guests, who are feeling unwell, have an infection, have symptoms of respiratory illness or have flu-like illnesses should not come to a healthcare facility.

• If an outbreak of infection requires restrictions for public health, staff will collaborate with the patient and family to enable and ensure that selected family members are still welcome to visit the patient.

• For the safety of the patient, families and guests are required to perform hand hygiene with soap and water, or alcohol-based hand rub, upon entering and leaving the patient's room.

• Children (younger than 14 years) are welcome if supervised by an adult who is not the patient.

• There may be interruptions to family and guest presence to protect the privacy rights of other patients or to maintain safety and security. Patients, families and guests are asked to help protect the privacy rights of other patients and their families and guests.

• Families and guests are welcome to bring scent-free, latex-free gifts for the patient. Please ask staff before bringing any food items.

  Families and guests are asked to act in the best interest of the patient by ensuring that the patient has time for rest, privacy and personal care.

  Definitions

  Patient - an individual who is accessing services

  Family - a group of individuals with a continuing legal, genetic and/or emotional relationship. Patients define their family and how they will be involved in care, care planning and decision-making. The Sun Country Health Region respects and values family as integral partners in providing excellent care.

  Guest - Visitor of the Patient or Family.

  For more information, please contact Leslie Gamble, Tatagwa View, Weyburn at 306-842-8226 or leslie.gamble@schr.sk.ca 

Updated April04,2017