Friday, October 5, 2007
For the Attention of
Hospital CEOs, Board Chairs, Directors of Quality/Patient Safety, OHA Board of Directors and CACN Members
Greg Shaw
Vice President, Strategic Human Resources Management
OHA Re-Launches “Your Health Care – Be Involved”
On October 12, 2007, the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) will re-launch its “Your Health Care – Be Involved” province-wide patient safety tips campaign to signal its renewed commitment to patient safety and to help empower patients make informed decisions about their health care.
Originally launched in 2005, “Your Health Care – Be Involved” empowers patients and promotes better health outcomes by bringing the advice and expertise of health professionals together in five common-sense patient “tips”. These tips are:
• Be involved in your health care. Speak up if you have questions or concerns about your care.
• Tell a member of your health care team about your past illnesses and your current health condition.
• Bring all of your medicines with you when you go to the hospital or to a medical appointment.
• Tell a member of your health care team if you have ever had an allergic or bad reaction to any medicine or food.
• Make sure you know what to do when you go home from the hospital or from your medical appointment.
As part of the re-launch of “Your Health Care – Be Involved,” the OHA has designed a one-page bi-fold pamphlet for use in hospitals to facilitate ease of reproduction and distribution to patients and their families. The new pamphlet is available in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Tagalog, Polish, Punjabi, Chinese, Greek, Tamil, Vietnamese, Hindi and Arabic and will be available for downloaded from the OHA website at www.oha.com/patientsafetytips after the public re-launch on October 12, 2007. All hospitals received a shipping box with the re-launch campaign materials during the third week in September and were encouraged to display the materials in prominent locations across their organizations to demonstrate their commitment to the campaign.
The official public re-launch will take place at 11:45 am on Friday, October 12, 2007 in the British Columbia Room during the Canadian Healthcare Safety Symposium at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. The re-launch coincides with Canadian Patient Safety Week (October 8 – 13) and strongly supports the 2007 Canadian Patient Safety Week theme “Patient Safety: Be Involved. Ask. Talk. Listen.”
For more information about the “Your Health Care – Be Involved” campaign, please visit the OHA’s website at www.oha.com/patientsafetytips or please contact Cyrelle Muskat at 416-205-1316 or cmuskat@oha.com.