Award Recipients

For the eighth year, the HQCA, in partnership with its Patient and Family Advisory Committee (PFAC), held the Patient Experience Awards program to recognize and help spread knowledge about initiatives that improve the patient experience in accessing and receiving healthcare services.

Four initiatives in Alberta were recognized as recipients of the 2022 awards. Watch their inspiring stories.

Complex Care Hub – Rockyview General Hospital and South Health Campus, Calgary
The Complex Care Hub provides a Home Hospital care model as an alternative to traditional hospitalization for patients with complex conditions who require hospital-level care but are able to sleep at home. Watch how they supported a young mom experiencing a difficult pregnancy. Watch the video here.

Infant Preschool Assessment Service (IPAS) at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Edmonton
The IPAS team sought to improve access to early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, made more difficult during the COVID pandemic, by developing a tool for virtual assessment. Hear one family’s experience getting help for their young son. Watch the video here.

Cross Cancer Institute, Edmonton
Real-time integration of radiology, surgery, and pathology for early breast cancer patients is reducing the frequency of repeat surgery for patients. Watch the uplifting story of one woman with a family history of cancer whose own experience was made better through this program. Watch the video here.

Low-Stimulus Immunization Clinic – Public Health, Vaccination Services, Calgary Zone
This clinic was created in 2021 to support neurologically diverse clients in accessing COVID-19 immunizations. Clients include those with severe needle phobias, PTSD, autism, and a variety of other neurodiversities. Learn how they helped a young teen overcome his severe needle phobia. Watch the video here.

Previous award recipients

2021 HQCA Patient Experience Award recipients
Hope Hallway
Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) two adolescent mental health units at the Foothills Medical Centre collaborated with patients, family, staff, and community artists to design and create the Hope Hallway. The Hope Hallway transforms the traditional, institutionalized feel of the hospital to one that is teen-friendly, hopeful, comforting, and engaging. Content includes discussion of mental illness/hospitalization.
Watch
Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) at AgeCare
The medical assistance in dying (MAID) program at AgeCare provides residents with compassionate end-of-life care in a peaceful and supportive space, surrounded by the people most important to them. The COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges for residents across Alberta seeking MAID. AgeCare acted quickly and worked with the MAID navigation team at Alberta Health Services to continue to accept transfers for MAID by providing a dedicated space for transfers during the pandemic, ensuring the safety and comfort of all involved. Content includes a setting for medical assistance in dying.
Watch
Reducing the Impact of Financial Strain
The Life Medical Clinic and McLeod River Primary Care Network are working together to reduce the impact of financial strain (RIFS) on their patients. They developed and implemented a screening tool that creates a safe space to have a conversation with a patient about the impact of finances on their health. The clinic worked closely with the Alberta Health Services Health Promotions team to map the local agencies who could provide appropriate supports for each patient.
Watch
Virtual Caregiver Support Sessions
The Stollery Children’s Hospital Patient and Family Centred Care team facilitated conversations with families of medically complex children to understand how they were uniquely impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions and quarantine, and created a series of virtual caregiver support sessions. This AHS initiative created a virtual community to help families cope and navigate challenges with supportive peers and providers through the pandemic. Content includes discussion of pandemic stress/isolation.
Watch
2020 HQCA Patient Experience Award recipients
Remote monitoring for patients living with cardiac implantable electrical device (CIED) – Video
The Performance Evaluation and Rhythm Follow-up Optimization through Remote Monitoring (PERFORM) team implemented remote monitoring for patients living with a cardiac implantable electrical device (CIED) more consistently across Alberta. Using remote monitoring, CIEDs can be connected at any time, wherever a cellular or WiFi network exists. This allows patients to be evaluated in their home to a similar extent as in a specialty face to face clinic visit, increasing access to appropriate and acceptable care in the community and without subjecting patients to excessive infectious risks as in the current pandemic.
Watch
Virtual Opioid Dependency Program (VODP) – Video
The Virtual Opioid Dependency Program (VODP) uses a completely virtual clinic model to connect a doctor-led, multidisciplinary team with clients referred for opioid agonist therapy (OAT; e.g., methadone or buprenorphine/naloxone). Assessment, treatment, and support are provided via videoconference, telephone, and texting, and are delivered in conjunction with a pharmacist in the local area for OAT medication dispensing.If you are in Alberta and need support for yourself or a loved one, you can call the VODP team at 1-844-383-7688.
Watch
Maskwacis Elders Mentoring Program – Video
The Wetaskiwin Primary Care Network (PCN) Prenatal Program, in collaboration with the University of Alberta and the Cree communities of Maskwacis, established the Elders Mentoring Program. Through the program, several Elders and grandmothers from Maskwacis work alongside staff to provide additional, culturally appropriate supports to Indigenous pregnant women and their partners in their prenatal clinic.
Watch
Provincial Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Delirium Initiative – Video
*Given the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and unique pressures facing our provincial ICU teams, the Provincial ICU Delirium Initiative team’s video is currently on hold. We look forward to sharing this team’s story with you when we can!*In partnership with Alberta’s critical care community, the Critical Care Strategic Clinical Network (CCSCN) led and facilitated the highly collaborative Provincial Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Delirium Initiative. This initiative team engaged patient and family advisors, operational leaders, and front-line healthcare professionals across Alberta Health Services to design, adapt, and implement leading practices for the prevention and management of ICU-associated delirium into the Alberta context. These efforts resulted in a standardized provincial approach to this aspect of care in both adult and pediatric critical care settings.
2019 HQCA Patient Experience Award recipients
Summary of 2019 Award Recipients
Read about the four initiatives that received a 2019 Patient Experience Award.
download (PDF 405K)
NowICU Project, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Misericordia Community Hospital – Video
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Rapid Access, Patient Focused Biopsy Clinic; Head and Neck Surgery, Pathology; University of Alberta Hospital – Video
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Edmonton Prostate Interdisciplinary Cancer Clinic (EPICC), Northern Alberta Urology Centre – Video
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Transitional Pain Service, South Health Campus – Video
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2018 HQCA Patient Experience Award recipients
Summary of 2018 Award Recipients
Read about the four initiatives that received a 2018 Patient Experience Award.
download (PDF 67K)
Webcast from our 2018 Awards program
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2017 HQCA Patient Experience Award recipients
Summary of 2017 Award Recipients
Read about the four initiatives that received a 2017 Patient Experience Award.
download (PDF 127K)
Webcast from our 2017 Awards program
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2016 HQCA Patient Experience Award recipients
Summary of 2016 Award Recipients
Read about the four initiatives that received a 2016 Patient Experience Award.
download (PDF 282K)
Webcast from our 2016 Awards program
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