Patients’ Council

The Patients’ Council of East Tallinn Central Hospital is a voluntary council which consists of the representatives of patients and their loved ones, giving advice to the hospital. The Council started operating in September 2023. The goal of the Council is to help design human-centred patient journeys and services by involving patients and their loved ones in hospital processes, in order to guarantee the satisfaction of the patients with the hospital.

The goals of the Council are to include the patient’s view to the organisation of the hospital’s internal and external communication, to designing different services and patient journeys, and to developing trainings and other health education projects targeted to general population.

The members of the Patients’ Council as of 15 September 2023 are Avo Hein (Chair of the Council), Hele-Riin Hunt (Deputy Chair of the Council), Kadri Penjam, Laine Siim, Lea Lumi, Liina Daum, Mai Olde, Mihael Vladislavlev and Signe Valgemäe. The representatives of East Tallinn Central Hospital are Kätlin Pallo, Lea Karik and Agris Koppel.

Additional questions about the work of the Patients’ Council: patsientidenoukoda [at] itk.ee (patsientidenoukoda[at]itk[dot]ee)

Summary of the Council meetings:

2024

At the 13 February meeting, the administrative service gave an overview of its area of activity, and the implementation of the patient safety system was presented. There was an initial discussion on patient logistics, where it was found that it is easy and convenient to register for an appointment, but the main bottleneck is time planning due to parking problems at both the Magdalena and Ravi units. Where possible, patients should be given detailed information, informing them that it would be preferable to arrive by public transport or to allow time to find a parking space.

At the 9 January meeting, Dr. Sukles, Head of Internal Medicine, gave a comprehensive overview of her work. The Legal and Procurement Department and Quality Department also presented their activities. In addition, the hospital’s lawyer gave an overview of the subject of euthanasia and a discussion took place.

2023

At the 12 December meeting, an overview was given of the principles governing hospital catering, the audit of catering, and the activities of the nutritional care team. A discussion followed on both the setting of menus and flexibility, and it was recognised that much more could and should be done to raise awareness of nutrition among both staff and patients. Members of the PNK gave feedback on the internal procedures of the hospital, and it turned out that the procedures are relatively easy to understand and written in plain language. In the future, patients will also be asked for their opinion on patient information materials and other patient documents.

At the 14 November meeting, health trainings for the general public were discussed. An overview of what has been done and what is planned for the coming year was given by the East Tallinn Central Hospital Training Department. In addition, the hospital’s Head of Customer Service presented the structure of health services and how to access those services.

At the 10 October meeting, an overview was given on the developments and the number of visits to the hospital’s website, and patient representatives discussed how to improve access to and the movement of information. The results of the patient feedback and satisfaction survey were also presented and discussed.

On September 15, at the first meeting of the Council, the Chairman of the Board of East Tallinn Central Hospital, Mr. Tarmo Baker, gave an overview of the hospital. Elle Rohi introduced the background of establishing the Council, and its connections to the World Patient Safety Day, the topic of which this year was including patients in safety design. In addition, the hospital expressed their expectations to the Council and the members of the Council shared their expectations to the Council, the hospital and the health care system in general. After discussing the draft of the Statutes of the Council and its work organisation, the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Council were selected, and the schedule and topics of the meetings for 2023 and 2024 were agreed on.