Can you see what matters to me?

Introduction: As staff we only see a small part of our patient’s life. On face value we see that they come into hospital for management of their condition. What we don’t always see is what it means to the children and their families. That is, unless we ask.The Ambulatory Units at The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network have undertaken a quality improvement project to bring visibility to “what matters to you” – using patient stories and an interactive white board to seek feedback from patients and families to co-design our services, make small but valuable changes, and drive cultural change within the teams.Methodology and Change Implemented: A co-design and quality improvement methodology was used to create collaboration between consumers and staff. Two approaches were tested:A large interactive whiteboard was placed in each unit to seek input from consumers on “what matters to you”Patient Stories – patients with chronic conditions and their family members were invited to write detailed accounts of what it means to them to attend the HospitalAim: To test the use of interactive whiteboards and patient stories to ask “what matters to you” (an approach learned from international peers) to:Involve consumers in service design: Drive cultural change within the unit and create an environment of continuous quality improvementHighlights: Since implementation of this project twelve months ago – two cycles have been complete, involving:Large white board placed in the unit with an invitation to patients/families to write/draw their feedbackInformation/drawings were captured and responses recorded and themedResponses were transformed into quality improvement projects or small scale changesActions undertaken were fed back to consumers on the Quality Board - “you said… we did”The whiteboard was cleared to commence a second roundThe interactive whiteboards increased conversations between consumers and staff, removing hierarchy and valuing consumer input. The culture change within the department was significant, with staff realising that the little things that matter can easily be applied to improve the patient experience.The patient written stories are being used to create one-page ‘what matters to me’ cards for each child. Feedback is also being incorporated into handover to make the ‘person’ more visible – such as “and Max enjoys chocolate milk with his infusion”.Sustainability and transferability: This project is a self-sustaining way of encouraging continuous consumer