BRIEFING
FI MERCER CEO and Founder, Governance Evaluator
How to genuinely partner with consumers A key area of focus for clinical governance.
In 2017 Safer Care Victoria and the Australian
other people. We need to provide expertise and
Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
information to our consumers and communities
created new Clinical Governance Frameworks.
so they can then decide what they want, because
A key area of focus for clinical governance was,
they are the experts on their own lives.
and remains, genuinely partnering with consumers. As part of their broader conversation about the governance of clinical care, Fi Mercer, CEO and Founder of Governance Evaluator, talked with Dr Sue Matthews, CEO of the Royal Women’s Hospital (Victoria) and now Chair of the Victorian Healthcare Association about how to lead positive outcomes in consumer engagement. SUE: Genuinely partnering with consumers is an important opportunity for improvement if we are prepared to stop and listen. In that regard I think that the advice of our Royal Women’s Hospital Consumer Advisory Committee is essential. Understanding from consumers what they want is key—and moving from a ‘teach and tell’ approach to a ‘listen and explore’ style is an essential part of getting this right. We genuinely must shift the way we do things. We need to remember that while each of us has expertise, we are not complete experts about
46
The Health Advocate • JUNE 2019
To illustrate this point, and show how organisations can better ‘listen and explore’ Sue told a story from her experience in another organisation involving an elderly inpatient with diabetes who did not speak English. SUE: The gentleman in question was put into a set regime for diabetes care, including diet, medication and so on. He was about to go home, and everyone thought he and his wife were going to manage very well. I had a suspicion, however, that he might have been blankly smiling and nodding about all the compliance orders, and he probably would not adhere to them once at home. I took it upon myself to chat to the man’s daughter about this, even though our excellent staff had given the best professional advice and programs. The response from the daughter was ‘Are you kidding me? My dad—an elderly Italian man—
