Consumers were at the heart of eHealth NSW’s Human Experience Week celebrations in May.
Previously known as Patient Experience Week, Human Experience Week (1 – 7 May 2023) was renamed this year to reflect the inextricable link between patient, carer, family, volunteer and staff experiences that all form the human experience in healthcare.
Events took place in person and online across the NSW Health network with the theme ‘All of Us: the Power of Community’.
eHealth NSW’s live virtual event embraced this theme – giving consumers and community partners the opportunity to share their stories about how digital technologies have impacted their own personal healthcare experiences. The event also showcased 2 eHealth NSW programs that are empowering and engaging consumers.
Meet Brigitte
Brigitte Sigl, a member of the eHealth NSW consumer reference group, shared her challenging and inspirational journey with chronic illness. She opened up about her lived experience with multiple sclerosis to give a better understanding of the patient perspective. It gave insight into how eHealth NSW can work with consumers to meet their digital needs.
“My good and bad experiences make me a very passionate person and I want to improve the system and build bridges between staff and consumers,” Brigitte said.
“We can learn from each other, and co-design and cocreation can be achieved by mutual trust and respect for each other.“
Consumers and staff, hand-in-hand from the beginning is essential, and only then can true partnership and superior outcomes be achieved for our community.”
eHealth NSW recently established the consumer reference group to provide advice and recommendations to various eHealth NSW committees and programs. This currently includes 8 consumers representing communities across NSW.
The group provides an independent voice to ensure the preferences, needs and values of consumers like Brigitte are considered in planning and decision-making in relation to eHealth NSW’s digital solutions.
Simon's story
Simon Herd, Executive Principal at Hunter Christian School, (pictured in the header with his wife), also spoke openly about the emotional rollercoaster he and his wife Sharlene experienced when she had a sudden, unexpected seizure and was diagnosed with meningioma.
Simon said he was thankful for the digital systems in place that allowed Sharlene’s clinicians to have access to the latest information and act quickly.
“The data collected and speed of information going into the system so the specialists had it at their fingertips was outstanding and it really ensured the best patient experience for Sharlene,” Simon said.
“These are the stories that you don’t often hear, and the impact of the work you’ve done in creating an interface is often unseen, but for us it was huge."
“For us, the work eHealth NSW does behind the scenes is actually at the frontline in supporting patient experience.”
eHealth NSW is exploring community partnerships with schools, including Hunter Christian School, as part of our ongoing work to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) ‘real world’ learning opportunities.
The Human Experience Week event also spotlighted our Health Outcomes and Patient Experience (HOPE) and Engage Outpatients programs.
People centred solutions
Empowering patients and carers to share their health experiences is at the core of HOPE, designed by eHealth NSW in collaboration with the Agency for Clinical Innovation. The HOPE platform enables patients and their carers to share feedback on their health outcomes and experiences of care. This allows the realtime collection of Patient Reported Measures (PRMs) giving clinicians insight into the needs of patients and driving improvements in their social, emotional and overall wellbeing.
Engage Outpatients is a new digital referral management solution to improve the referral experience of patients, referrers and clinicians in outpatient services. Through Engage Outpatients referrals are sent digitally to outpatient services, notifying both referrers and patients of referral outcomes. Continuity of care is improved for patients by streamlining the secure sharing of patient information between referrers and outpatient services, enhancing the experience for all involved.
Elevating the Human Experience
The virtual event highlighted the positive impact eHealth NSW’s work can have on human experience.
To find out more about human-centred healthcare in NSW, view the Elevating the Human Experience – NSW Health’s guide to action for patient, family, carer and caregiver experiences. It outlines how we can all partner together to transform the way NSW Health delivers high quality, compassionate and personalised care.
NSW Health also recently launched All of Us: A guide to engaging consumers, carers and communities across NSW Health.
The news item above is included in our eHealth NSW July 2023 newsletter.
Download the July 2023 newsletter
