On November 20, 2024, close to 100 healthcare professionals from across Canada gathered for Spark Conferences’ inaugural Healthcare Quality Conference. If you missed it, here’s a quick recap of two popular sessions:
How A Multifaceted Approach Can Transform Healthcare Delivery?
Mark Weir, Director of Patient Experience from Trillium Health Partners stressed the importance of integrating patient and family voices into healthcare delivery through his session on “People-Centered Care”. Drawing from his extensive leadership experience, Mark shared insights into balancing task-oriented workflows with empathy, training staff to create meaningful patient interactions, and addressing cultural needs through community partnerships. Using data-driven approaches, Mark has implemented impactful changes such as bedside terminals, wait-time dashboards, and AI tools for feedback analysis.
Mark stated that the importance of aligning patient goals with healthcare objectives to improve outcomes and experiences is undeniable. The Director of Patient Experience encouraged attendees to see their communities as assets, empowering patients to actively participate in their care and guiding better healthcare design through collaboration and inclusion.
Quote of the session: “In healthcare, our greatest asset is the voice of the people we serve. When we truly listen, empower, and collaborate with patients, families, and communities, we unlock the potential to create care systems that are not only efficient but deeply human.”
Relational Leadership and Co-Creation in Action: Driving Change in Patient and Staff Engagement
Doran Walker, RN BsCN MBA PMP from Alberta Health Services joined us with an inspiring presentation on “Healing Hospitals”, focusing on relational leadership. Doran walked us through how his unique approach has driven tangible results, with a 32% improvement in patient experience and a 20% increase in staff engagement. We all walked away inspired by Doran’s strategies, such as his daily “What Matters to You?” check-ins, bedside shift reporting, and collaborative workload reduction.
In addition, Doran also answered burning questions from attendees across Canada, including:
Attendee 1: “What were the incident rates after implementing the healing hospital? What were the hard outcomes?”
Doran: “For patient safety it lowered but I don’t put it in as a success because I wasn’t sure how to correlate it at all. It was very similar to seasonal changes in rates. I’m not sure about a hard outcome but the difficult piece where myself and we as a project team had to come to terms was we made all these communication channels and then there was still chatter about 1.5 months in that there wasn’t enough communication and we had to re-evaluate how we were doing exactly what the project was asking for so rather than doubling down and saying “Look at all these communication channels” with the slide I showed in the presentation (This was my initial reaction) we had to use our second reaction and allow influence so townhalls going into the 3rd month and anonymous drop box and maintained anonymity emails.”
Attendee 2: “Have you been able to ascertain the improvements on quality of life for the patients/residents? Are you able to quantify that from the patient journey?”
Doran: We had an increase in overall patient experience beyond our drivers of 24-25%. I focus on the drivers because it’s what we looked at. Qualitatively through leader rounding, I used thematic
analysis and conservatively saw a significant increase in psychological safety. Then from the patient journey, I think we want to go back now and do a final version of how it’s affected their lives now. Quality of life outside of the hospital quantitatively would be something interesting but maybe connect with me and share ideas on that if you have them.
Erika Hammer (They/She): “How do you balance co-design with the HRO principle of deferring to expertise? (expert mindset vs. collaborative mindset)”
Doran: OK, this is a question that dives right into the heartbeat of what we’re talking about and it came up recently elsewhere. Balancing co-design with the High Reliability Organization (HRO) principle of deferring to expertise is like walking a tightrope between empowering collaboration and honouring the deep wells of specialized knowledge that make healthcare thrive. I’m glad I have the opportunity to write some of these out because I’m going to share out what I had written out previously. Can you connect and share with me what your thoughts are about my answer? Doran Walker on LinkedIn.
Doran Walker emphasized that position co-design and expertise not as opposing forces but as complementary assets in your leadership toolkit. “You’re not choosing between an expert mindset and a collaborative mindset; you’re orchestrating them to create a symphony,” Doran stated.
Quote of the session: “True transformation in healthcare begins with relational leadership and co-creation—when we empower patients and staff to shape their experiences, we create lasting change that benefits everyone.”
As we continue to support healthcare quality professionals, we invite you to connect, share, and explore how we can collectively advance the patient and workforce experience for lasting impact. See you all at the 2nd Annual Healthcare Quality Conference 2025.
Save the dates November 20-21, 2025, in Toronto. Can’t make it in person? Register to attend virtually at: https://sparkconferences.com/quality/.