Engaging a Patient and Family Voice at MAHC

The patient and family perspective has never been more important or influential in health care than it is today. Patients and their family members provide tremendous firsthand experience and feedback that is important to ensuring we are always providing care that is centred around those we serve. For the past five years, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) has had a Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) that provides the organization with advice and recommendations on matters where the patient perspective is vital to advancing person-centred care. The council is made up of Patient Experience Partners who bring patient and family input closer to the bedside through input on policies, procedures and processes by sharing their own ideas and points of view. There are different reasons why Patient Experience Partners volunteer to participate and shape patient care in Muskoka, but what they all have in common is their desire to positively influence other patient and family experiences. I am pleased to introduce a handful of our Patient Experience Partners to share what inspired them to join us in making the patient experience better.

Tammy Purvis

Tammy Purvis was an inaugural member of our PFAC back in 2017 because she and her family have used the hospital over the years, and felt it was important to be part of a council that would hear her voice and learn from her experiences while fostering partnerships with health care professionals.

“Being with like-minded people who are sharing ideas and suggestions to make a difference in the quality of care that patients and families are receiving is the most rewarding part of being a Patient Experience Partner,” says Tammy. “It is so rewarding to know that you are part of something that is making a difference in our community’s health care.”

Emily Carty has been on our PFAC since 2019 and serves as the Patient Experience Partner on the Obstetrics Committee and the Workplace Violence Committee.

Emily Carty

“As a child and youth care practitioner I have supported many youth who have accessed and received services from HDMH,” says Emily. More recently, Emily spent time as a patient at SMMH to give birth to her children and says the most rewarding part about being a Patient Experience Partner at MAHC is knowing that her generation has a patient voice in the mix. “With my children and parents needing care from the hospital I am experiencing services from both ends of the spectrum,” she says.

Jan Kindy

Jan Kindy is relatively new to our PFAC and says her decision to become a Patient Experience Partner came after her father’s lengthy hospital stay. “It was during this time I was able to see how important the patient, family and hospital connection was. I can imagine this being positive in many ways… working with others to add value to the patient experience,” she says.

John Lock

John Lock had a 36-year career with Toronto Paramedic Services and was fortunate to serve on numerous hospital committees in the GTA, and around the province. He felt our PFAC would allow him to combine his own patient experience with his past professional and committee involvement to give back to his community.

“My wife and I have been patients of MAHC numerous times over the past couple of years, and we have both commented that we have never experienced the exceptional care that we have experienced at MAHC,” says John. “The compassion, the welcoming atmosphere and the exceptional care begins at the door of the hospital and continues through the experience. We are blessed and very fortunate to have such a great team at MAHC.”

As a member of our PFAC, John hopes that by sharing ideas and expectations of patients and families when they access hospital care that he can shape and influence the same exceptional experiences that he and his wife have had. 

MAHC is actively seeking applications from community members who have been a patient or a family member of a patient at either hospital and want to partner with us to improve the care experience. Might you be our next Patient Experience Partner? Please visit www.mahc.ca/PEPapplication/ to learn more about this opportunity.