If you can’t remember as much of your medical history as you’d like to or feel you should, consider developing your own health plan.
That’s a recommendation from the Manitoba Institute for Patient Safety, also known as MIPS. Better yet, they can provide resources to help you do it.
The Institute is a not-for-profit organization established in 2004. Their mandate is to support anyone seeking medical care with tools to help them be proactive in their health care.
Laurie Thompson, Executive Director of MIPS, tells us more here.
“Our organization puts a real spotlight on patient safety. Much of the harm that people do or can experience is preventable. Our vision is that patient safety is a priority. We have lots of connections through the province and we consider ourselves to be a go-to place for regions and organizations and healthcare providers to be able to come and we can assist them with their patient safety work and we can point them in the right direction.”
Thompson encourages anyone who is seeking medical treatment to ask questions and to write notes to make sure important details aren’t missed.
Also, if you’re not feeling well and medical appointments leave you with more questions than answers, a patient advocate can help you sort through all the information.
MIPS encourages the use of a patient advocate as a step in promoting a better health care experience for anyone involved in the medical system. Thompson details some characteristics an advocate should have.
“You need to choose somebody who can speak up, who can ask questions and is not afraid to do that. Obviously you want somebody who can keep your information in confidence. They would be somebody taking notes and keeping track of things. And they probably should be a good listener. That would be important if you’re having them involved in appointments and taking notes. It’s really somebody who has your best interests in mind.”
Thompson said the best way to make the most of your interactions with medical professionals is to ask lots of questions and to keep asking them until you get answers you understand.
The Manitoba Institute for Patient Safety has two websites. They are Safetoask.ca and MIPS.ca.
