Five things every hospital patient should know…

Your health care team’s most important resource is you.

Good patients take responsibility for their care, and not necessarily in just the good diet and regular exercise kind of way, but rather the kind of responsibility that calls for awareness.

When you’re at a hospital, take an active role in your care by doing these five things:

1. Be involved. Speak up if you have questions or concerns.

2. Tell the doctor or nurse about your past illnesses and your current health condition.

3. When you go to the hospital or doctor’s office, bring all of your medicines with you.

4. Ever had an allergic or bad reaction to any medicine or food? Tell the doctor or nurse.

5. Make sure you know what to do when you go home from the hospital or from your medical appointment.

Five Print-ready Patient Tips to Bring with You

As part of the Ontario Hospital Association’s (OHA) Your Health Care – Be Involved campaign, you’ll find a printable version of these five tips and other patient safety tools, like a downloadable pamphlet on the importance of hand washing in health care, by clicking the Patient Safety Tips icon on the OHA’s newest website myhospitalcare.ca

Your Interactive Guide to Hospital Care in Ontario

Patient safety tips are just one part of this online tool. Its main purpose is to provide Ontarians with a searchable database of publicly available information on hospital performance. Myhospitalcare.ca organizes all of this information into easy-to-use categories – by location, by hospital, type of care or by indicator (that is, the aspect of care you’re most interested in).

Learn How Clean Hands Can Protect Your Life

And with all the talk of hospital infection, it’s important to understand that you too are part of every hospital’s infection control plan. Learn more about the importance of hand washing with the Clean Hands Protect Lives downloadable pamphlet.

The chance of acquiring a health care-associated infection is a reality at any hospital: After all, it’s where sick people go. With initiatives like the Clean Hands campaign, Ontario hospitals are working hard to reduce the risk factors that contribute to the spread of infections.

Stay Informed About Hospital Infection Rates in your Area

But if you want to be better informed about rates of infection in your area hospital, click on the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care’s Patient Safety Initiative website to find up-to-date, searchable information on Ontario hospital infections rates.

While hospital performance and infection rates are used to tell health experts about what practices work best in managing a hospital, you are the expert in your own health care and you know what’s most important to you.

Visit myhospitalcare.ca to learn more about your health care and how you can be involved.