Kingston General Hospital has been generating a lot of excited buzz recently for our work in putting our patients at the centre of everything we do. Now comes word that we have just won an important award from a world expert in patient-centred care - the NRC Picker Innovative Best Practice Award 2012 for Canada.
The award recognizes us for creating and implementing the Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Model (ICPM) along with our patient and family centred care initiative.
"This is incredible news," says Daryl Bell, lead of our Patient and Family Centred Care initiative. "NRC Picker is involved internationally in patient satisfaction and in ways to improve the patient experience. For KGH to be recognized as an innovator at this level is truly remarkable and exemplifies the hard work our advisors and staff are doing."
According to the organization, this award highlights "a best practice in patient-centred care that involves an innovative use of resources with documented results of significant improvement in cost, quality, patient satisfaction and safety."
It was presented to KGH on September 18 at the NRC Picker 2012 Annual Symposium on Patient-Centred Care in Chicago. KGH President and CEO Leslee Thompson was on hand to accept it personally on the hospital's behalf. (L-R) Susan Henricks, NRC President & COO, Leslee Thompson, President & CEO KGH, Jeff MacDonald, President of NRC Picker Canada. "This is such a meaningful award and I'm so proud," says Thompson. "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 not just talk. We are living it every day."
NRC Picker has been handing out the Innovative Best Practices Award for several years now in the U.S. Last year, it decided to create a Canadian version of the award, and KGH is its first winner.
According to the organization, KGH was up against some stiff competition in the category, as it also received impressive submissions from several other leading-edge Canadian hospitals.
"The KGH submission outlining their Patient and Family-Centred Care initiative was chosen from a pool of extremely strong submissions," says Jeff MacDonald, President of NRC Picker Canada. "The KGH care philosophy of "Nothing about me, without me" has certainly resulted in improving the quality for the patient care experience and the work life for KGH staff, physicians, volunteers and learners."
This isnít the first time KGH's work on patient-centred care in Canada has been singled out for accolades. The Change Foundation recently profiled our success in leading the way in patient and family centred care and we also regularly field inquires from other healthcare centres eager to learn from our experiences.
"We have literally dozens of organizations from across the country and even internationally coming to us to better understand how KGH is partnering with patients and families," says Bell. "It's an inspiration for us to double our efforts to stay a leader in this field."
To learn more about the NRC Picker and its Innovative Best Practice Award visit www.nationalresearch.com.
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