Care Opinion enables patient driven care

I love the sense of invention that pervades much of Australian health care.  I guess when you are surrounded by "the largest moat in the world," you spend a lot of time thinking about how to make things better for your homeland.

I remember that many of the "innovations" in patient safety and quality that we adopted at my former hospital were in fact shamelessly stolen from excellent work that had been done by people in Oz.  So it came as no surprise to me to learn of this attempt at patient and family engagement.  It's called Care Opinion.

My readers know that I'm an advocate for patient driven (not just patient centered) care, and Care Opinion meets my standard because people can engage in it easily, in real time, and in so doing, get their message to the right people, who can then respond.

It self-describes as:

An independent site about your experiences of care and support services, good or bad. We pass your stories to the right people to make a difference.

The site promises:

• Care Opinion gives you a public voice to share your experience about the services you use.
• Care Opinion will always try to make sure that the right people will hear your story.
• Sharing your stories about health and care services on Care Opinion can help make services better.
• Care Opinion is safe, confidential and independent of services and authorities.
• Reading the stories that other people share on Care Opinion may help you choose the best care providers.
• Care Opinion works across health services, as well as care and support. Whether your story is about care or health or both, we publish it and deliver it to the right people locally, whether they work in care or health.

It is transparent about how effective it is:

Plus, it's interesting to get an overall sense of how people are feeling:

Check out the site, and see what you think.  Is this what you've been waiting for in your jurisdiction, health system, or other health care service organization?