Author:  Patricia Nicholson

The best way to find out what women want from health care, and from a health-care facility, is to ask them. And that’s just what Women’s College Hospital did. The result is A Thousand Voices for Women’s Health, a report detailing the results of the hospital’s survey of women’s health-care experiences, fears, needs, criticisms, hopes and desires.

Women’s College Hospital reached out to women across Ontario from all kinds of cultures, backgrounds and life situations. In 25 focus groups and 35 online community forums, as well as online and telephone surveys of almost 600 women in Ontario, the researchers heard from new citizens, recent immigrants and women who have lived their whole lives in Ontario. It included women of diverse ages, incomes, religions and orientations, with a wide variety of life experiences and life circumstances, and differing abilities and health issues.

‘This is not research about Women’s College Hospital,’ said Women’s College president and CEO Marilyn Emery at an event on Sept. 28 launching both the research report and the next phase of the development of the hospital’s new facility. ‘It’s about what women want from their health-care facility and their health-care experience. And it’s based on feedback from nearly 60 distinct communities of women.’

Their responses yielded some important themes: safety, empowerment, respect for and understanding of cultures and lifestyles, and a holistic approach to health care that focuses on wellness.

Some notable results:

• Only 30 per cent of respondents said they felt empowered when dealing with health-care providers. A great many women had less positive feelings: 45 per cent said they felt isolated when visiting a hospital, 57 per cent said they felt afraid, 63 per cent felt frustrated and 76 per cent felt anxious.
• Sixty-five per cent of women felt they were treated like a number rather than a person, and 70 per cent felt the focus was on rushing them through their appointments and treatments rather than discussing their needs and circumstances.
• The vast majority – 88 per cent of respondents – said it was essential to approach health care holistically, treating the whole person rather than isolated body parts. However, less than half that number (43 per cent) felt that hospitals and health-care facilities actually achieved this.
• Most women prefer to remain in the community – and in their lives – while their conditions are treated. Ambulatory care – or outpatient treatment, as opposed to being admitted to hospital – was the preference of 90 per cent of respondents.
• A health-care facility that is knowledgeable about, sensitive to, and actively addresses diverse cultures was important to 80 per cent of respondents.
• More than 85 per cent of women feel women’s health issues should be a research priority for a health-care institution. However, only 56 per cent think institutions successfully keep women’s health at the forefront of research programs.

Emery told almost 300 people gathered for the launch event at Women’s College Hospital that the survey results are being put into action with the hospital’s new, state-of-the-art facility, which will be completed on the hospital’s current site by 2015.

‘It will be a hospital designed unlike any other. It will allow for light to stream in, privacy in all encounters, curved walls and fluid spaces,’ Emery said. ‘Our new hospital will be built not around in-patient wards and bedrooms, but around specialized clinics, centres and surgical suites.’

This innovative approach is designed to keep women out of hospital. The new facility will be Ontario’s only ambulatory hospital focused on women’s health.

‘We’re delivering an entirely new model of care. Ambulatory care is working, and it’s giving women what they want: convenient treatment in their communities and in the context of their lives,’ Emery said.

The Hon. Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, officially unveiled the sign announcing construction of the new hospital, and placed her fingerprint on a mock-up of the facility. Women from diverse community groups joined her in adding their own fingerprints, and guests at the event were invited to do so as well.

The new facility will include the Women’s College Research Institute (WCRI), making women’s health research a key focus.

‘Our research institute is one of the few in the world – and the only one in Canada – devoted to women’s health and innovations in ambulatory care,’ said Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe, an endocrinologist at Women’s College Hospital and a scientist at the WCRI who spoke at the event.

‘Our scientists ask questions that are not only unique to women’s lives, but that are specific to distinct communities of women.’

Dr. Lipscombe highlighted the work of Women’s College researchers who are investigating views of intimate partner violence in Toronto’s Tamil community, inherited breast and ovarian cancers in Ashkenazi Jewish women, and the pregnancy-planning needs of HIV-positive women and their families. Dr. Lipscombe’s own research recently probed why lower-income women with diabetes are more likely than wealthier women to die from the condition.

‘Equally important, we’re putting our research into action,’ she said. ‘I’m proud that Women’s College is building a research institute that supports and celebrates the world’s best in women’s health.’

The new Women’s College Hospital is designed to bring the health-care priorities, needs and hopes articulated by Ontario women to life. To find out more about A Thousand Voices for Women’s Health, and to add your own voice, go to www.womenshealthmatters.ca/1000women.