The journey to include patient and family voices

Abstract

Traditionally, the roles of patients and their families in healthcare have been passive. Despite claims of patient centredness, care design and decision-making often reflects the provider's perspective. Within Island Health, we knew that the challenges we faced were common to many healthcare organizations. We recognized that we would not be successful in changing to a patient-centred culture unless we had organizational support at the executive level for a patient and family experience strategy.