By: John Dickson, Patient and Family Advisor, Miranda Oppers, Manager, Patient Experience, Chris Chadwick, Quality Improvement Leader
For more than a decade, health care systems have recognized that patients and families are not just recipients of care but essential partners in improving it. At Lakeridge Health, this belief has evolved from intention to execution, advancing patient engagement to partnership and co-design in many quality improvement initiatives.
Like many organizations, Lakeridge Health began by seeking feedback on experiences and proposed changes. Leaders and Patient and Family Advisors (PFAs) recognized a critical gap: improvement efforts were still being done for patients, not with them.
Today, at Lakeridge Health, that has fundamentally changed and leaders are working closely with PFAs to bridge this gap.
PFAs are involved across all Lakeridge Health programs, contributing to planning, monitoring, and improvement efforts. They provide real-time insight into safety risks, care gaps, system inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement.
This shift has produced measurable value.
By engaging PFAs early and throughout the entire quality improvement initiative, teams design processes that better reflect patient needs, reduce friction in care delivery, and strengthen safety outcomes.
PFAs also create a built-in accountability mechanism: They ensure decisions are grounded in what matters most to patients, while fostering mutual understanding with Lakeridge Health team members. The result is not only an improved patient experience, but also a more efficient use of resources and better-aligned care pathways.
In addition, implementing structured feedback loops has ensured PFAs’ contributions are not only heard, but also visibly acted upon. This reinforces trust and sustains engagement. For example, PFAs are now invited to the 30, 60, 90 days report out sessions, updating the teams on how the work is being sustained.
A key inflection point in Lakeridge Health’s journey has been operationalizing engagement.
PFAs are now integrated into quality improvement training, planning checklists, and governance structures. PFAs have also taken the leadership and built on this collaboration. They have created a Patient and Family Advisor Education and Events Working Group to develop the skills PFAs identified as necessary to be more effective in their roles.
When it comes to effective and impactful engagement, Lakeridge Health has learned that timing is everything: Early involvement, paired with the right context and information, is what enables PFAs to contribute meaningfully.
At Lakeridge Health, the biggest takeaway is that this reinforces that patient partners are not a ‘nice to have,’ but a strategic lever to improve safety, experience, and financial performance.