Kingston General Hospital (KGH) has won the prestigious NRC Picker Innovative Best Practice Award 2012 for Canada. The award was presented to KGH President & CEO Leslee Thompson by NRC Picker at the NRC Picker 2012 International Symposium on Patient-Centred Care on September 18 in Chicago. NRC Picker is a world expert in patient-centred care.
This year marks the first time the National Research Corporation (NRC) has honoured a Canadian organization with the award and KGH is its first winner.
“This is such a meaningful award and I’m so proud,” says Thompson. “At KGH, we set out to put patients first and it’s exciting to see that others are recognizing us for how we’ve embedded the patient voice into everything we do. It’s what we live every day.”
Patient Experience Advisor Karen Nicole Smith says that the NRC Picker award signifies that KGH’s approach to empowering patients is unique. “This is a 100 per cent validation that KGH is on the right track,” she says. “It shows that it’s vital for everyone involved in patient-care to keep pushing the boundaries.”
Today, KGH has nearly 50 Patient Experience Advisors who work side by side with staff at all levels of the organization to ensure the patient voice is heard at every turn. Comprised of former KGH patients and their family members, Patient Experience Advisors are an integral part of KGH’s patient and family centred care initiatives.
NRC Picker Canada President Jeff MacDonald says those initiatives gave KGH the winning edge over submissions from other leading-edge hospitals across the country. “KGH was chosen from a pool of extremely strong submissions. The KGH care philosophy of ‘Nothing about me, without me’ has resulted in improving the quality of the patient-care experience at KGH.”
