Engaging patients to reduce hospital harm (17 October 2024)

Summary

New Hospital Harm data shows that 1 in every 17 hospital stays in Canada involved patient harm in 2023-2024, highlighting the ongoing need to make healthcare safer for everyone. Reported by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the rate of hospital harm has held steady at 6% for the past four years after increasing in 2020. In this article, Denise McCuaig, Executive Director for Healthcare Transformation & Capacity Building at Healthcare Excellence Canada looks at how effective communication and engaging patients and their caregivers can improve the safety and quality of healthcare. 

She outlines four ways to prioritise safety through patient engagement:

1. Create an engaging environment. Engagement-capable environments value the wisdom and experiences of patients and their essential care partners, fostering a culture of patient- and family-centred care that helps improve quality, safety and equitable outcomes.
2. Foster inclusive communication. Inclusive communication is a key skill for healthcare providers, helping reduce misunderstandings, bridge communication gaps and make all patients feel valued.
3. Recognise different forms of harm. Safety extends beyond the physical; psychological, social and spiritual wellbeing are also important. Engaging diverse individuals with lived experiences and providing trauma-informed care can help reduce harm, no matter what form.
4. Learn to prevent harm. Taking a proactive approach to patient safety enables healthcare providers to prevent harm before it happens. Understanding how safety incidents affect patients, caregivers and healthcare teams can lead to better safety outcomes.