Patient Experience

Your Voice Matters Survey

Knowing what matters to you is integral to providing high-quality patient care.

The Your Voice Matters survey is used in cancer centres across Ontario to help understand what is most important to you about the care you receive. The survey includes a set of multiple-choice questions that gives you a chance to share your thoughts about your most recent appointment. Unique to the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the survey also includes an open text box where you can share your own ideas on how to improve the care experience.

All survey feedback is confidential (private) and anonymous (your name is not used). The survey is sent monthly by email and is offered in several different languages.

The Cancer Quality Program will use the survey results to improve experiences for you and other patients. At the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, there is a dedicated role, the Patient Experience Coordinator, who is available to respond to your concerns and bring feedback to the right healthcare team(s).

Patient and Family Experience Priorities

The Patient and Family Experience Committee has extensively reviewed all the feedback, and has developed 5 main priorities. They are listed below.

1. To reduce wait times to see your healthcare provider.
   
2. To ask about and address your emotional worries or concerns.
   
3. To spend enough meaningful time with you as the patient.
   
4. To involve you in decisions and choices about your care in the way that you want to be involved.
   
5. To know and relate to you as a person beyond your diagnosis.
   

Changes We Have Made

We have implemented a lot of large and small changes based on your feedback.

How Your Voice Matters has made a difference:

• Installed an additional monitor in the outpatient pharmacy.
• Improved signs in Systemic Therapy.
• Improved parking at the Murray Street entrance with a free loading zone (previously paid parking).
• Better communication about discount parking at the Murray Street entrance.
• Improved flow and supports in the blood lab after the long weekends, in coordination with long-term planning.
• Enhanced seating on the main floor.
• Improved hand washing signs in all washrooms at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.
• Moving away from showing CP24 on screens and showing educational and calming content in its place.
• Enhanced wayfinding to the Older Adult Clinic (operates in Palliative Clinics).
• Improved support for myUHN/Patient portal.
• Clear mask initiative to support patients with hearing loss.
• Implemented the role of a Patient Safety Ambassador at the Murray Street entrance.
• Created all-gender washrooms.
• Digital triage developed as a quick and easy way for patients to email the clinics (Oct. 2023 gradual launch).
• Enhanced access to the symptom assessment tool known as ESAS within myUHN eCheck-In.

Long-term projects initiated from Your Voice Matters feedback:

• The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre created a wait-times task force to help improve wait times in outpatient clinics.
• Clinical teams are participating in educational activities to improve communication and enhance patient-centered care.
• The cancer centre implemented taskforces to support patient navigation for specific patient groups.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do we ask the questions in Your Voice Matters?
Your real-time comments speak volumes. As patients’ needs evolve, care delivery and quality must also change. Your Voice Matters is a way to share how you feel about your care. Your feedback will help improve healthcare for patients and caregivers locally and across Ontario.

Who completes the Your Voice Matters survey?
You should complete the Your Voice Matters survey if you are an adult patient in Ontario who is receiving cancer care (for example, getting cancer treatment or having an appointment about your cancer with a cancer doctor, nurse, social worker, or other healthcare team member).

You can complete the survey on your own, with a caregiver, or you can choose to have your caregiver receive the survey.

When will you receive the Your Voice Matters survey?
If your email is on file, you will receive a link to the survey in your email the month after your appointment. If you have regular, ongoing appointments, you will only receive a survey link every three months to reduce the number of times you are asked to complete the survey.

How can you receive the Your Voice Matters survey?
When you check in at the front desk of the clinic, a Patient Flow Coordinator will ask you to confirm important details about yourself such as your email address. If you provide an email address, the survey will be emailed to you.

What do we do with the results?
The overall results help the Princess Margaret understand what is most important to you. As a hospital, this helps us make changes or quality improvements to meet your needs. Feedback collected from the Your Voice Matters survey is anonymously shared to leadership and an internal patient and family experience committee to ensure results are used to plan for quality improvement initiatives.

Data from this survey is also shared with Ontario Health to help inform quality improvement across the province.

Find Out More

• To discuss any improvement ideas, please reach out to PMexperience@uhn.ca and we will be happy to assist you.
• If you have concerns you would like to discuss directly with the health care team (not anonymous), please feel free to contact Patient Relations.
• For all patients and family caregivers interested in joining the Patient Partners Program, please visit the Patient Partners page to learn how your experiences and expertise can improve and transform healthcare.
• To learn more about Your Voice Matters, watch this video (YouTube) from Ontario Health.
• For Ontario Health and Patient Experience updates, see the Cancer Care Ontario page.
• Learn more about how our work aligns with the Princess Margaret Strategy.​​