PACC continues to participate in the Health Canada Excellence competition for innovation projects.  With the help of one of our volunteers, we have made monthly submissions outlining our progress and how we’re levering the work of the Empowering the Citizen Patient project.  So far…drum roll please:)…we’ve been awarded cash prizes totaling $12,000 to use to further our efforts and also earned a Certificate of Recognition!  Not bad for a group of volunteer patients 🎉

In October, 2023, PACC member Paul Burgener registered the Empowering the Citizen Patient project in a nation-wide health workforce innovation challenge through Health Excellence Canada (HEC).  Since the PACC’s entry into the competition, there have been six themes and PACC as been a winner in three with a special acknowledgement in the fourth. The PACC’s submissions have won $12,000 in awards as well as a Certificate for a High Achieving Team with Sustainable Solutions. 

The Empowering the Citizen Patient project has been recognized for its unique approach to workforce retention by focusing on the demand side of health care – educating and encouraging citizens to improve self-care and assisting them in finding the right care with the right person at the right time.  

The PACC is unique in its participation as a patient-led project with an ambitious target audience – the whole population of Kootenay Boundary. Other competitors tend to be groups formed within health care organizations. PACC’s involvement has challenged the  judges to imagine how a group of patients trying to reach 80,000 people compares with the efforts of a group of workers in a certain section of a hospital or community health organization.  

The competition ends in July and there are still a few more awards possible based on the year-long achievements.  To date, only a few projects have received multiple awards so we are hopeful to be an end-of- year winner.  The significance of our involvement goes beyond the awards; The PACC demonstrates that we are citizen patients, empowered as responsible collaborators in health care.