You are lying in a hospital emergency department waiting and waiting to be taken out of the bright lights and into a proper room. When finally found a bed, you are then kept awake all night by a fellow patient continuously pressing the call button, as no one can speak her language to understand what she needs. For Mr Robert H. N. Ho, such a hospital encounter brought personal understanding of the difficulties faced by nurses and hospital staff amid resource constraints. It happened in Vancouver, Canada, but it could have been many other locations in the world, where the governments are striving to balance their budget or to keep the spiraling costs of healthcare, medical treatment and ageing populations in line with other social priorities.

At the time, it wasn’t an especially cheerful encounter. More happily, the end result – the launch of the innovative Robert H. N. Ho Enhancing Patient Care Fund in October 2014 – is now an inspiring talking point and springboard for change. In addition to Vancouver Coastal Health, one of the regional health authorities in the province of British Columbia, the novel form of philanthropy is providing a model for other healthcare regions.

Spotlight on patient care

The multi-year gift, donated by Mr Ho and his wife Greta, is an investment in the human capital of the healthcare system. What makes the Fund distinctive is that it concentrates on the vital role played by frontline professionals and provision of best care to patients rather than focusing attention on doctors.

It was Mr Ho who opened discussions with the Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) and University of British Columbia (UBC) Hospital Foundation. Several rounds of talks followed and gradually a way forward determined. The Fund would support education and professional development for nurses and allied health professionals across the Vancouver Coastal Health region, as well as recruitment and retention of quality health professionals.

Figures from Vancouver General Hospital alone, which handles over 27,000 in-patient visits, 40 outpatient clinics, more than 90,000 emergency department visits and 23,000 outpatient and inpatient surgical cases annually, show the huge number of patients set to benefit from enhanced care environments. Matching funds were provided by Vancouver General Hospital, Lions Gate Hospital Foundation and other related institutions.

"It’s an unusual gift in philanthropy because it is harder to measure and touch. I think it really speaks to Mr Ho’s imagination and ability to think creatively about his philanthropy and his willingness to trust that the beneficiary will do good with the funds"

- Ms Barbara Grantham, President and CEO, Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) and University of British Columbia (UBC) Hospital Foundation, who worked with Mr Ho in setting up the Enhancing Patient Care Fund

Five-pillar support

Fortuitously, the discussions initiated by Mr Ho coincided with Vancouver Coastal Health’s wish to support widespread adoption of a cutting-edge but costly UK enabling system. The programme trains and frees up frontline caregiving teams from time-consuming administrative tasks in order to focus more on patients. The Releasing Time to Care programme became the first initiative of the groundbreaking five-pillar Enhancing Patient Care Fund strategy, developed over 2013-14.

The five pillars are:

• Releasing Time to Care: a unit-based programme for frontline staff, helping to free up time from administrative duties and improve patient outcomes and satisfaction.
• Quality Academy Sponsorship: to assist professional development of leaders of quality improvement initiatives.
• Conferences: sponsored annually by Vancouver General Hospital to provide continuing education for nurses and allied professionals.
• Scholarship and Bursary Fund: for nurses and allied professionals to gain education in specialized areas.
• Innovation through Quality Improvement and Research: assisting point-of-care staff to propose and conduct research, facilitated through mentorship.

Given the less tangible nature of the donation’s focus, in comparison with funding a building, for example, a new framework for accountability and success indicators had to be put in place. Mr Ho also retained a retired medical director to attend meetings and provide reports on Fund-related activities.

‘Poster-child’ philanthropy

With professional development and training budgets severely hit by changing financial priorities for the government, such a donation opened a new door for healthcare institutions. It offered a way to fund the essential “software” innovations to keep health professionals advancing in line with the fast-moving times, technology, and care system developments.

“We use Mr Ho’s donation as a poster child to encourage others health authorities in British Columbia to adopt a similar model in order to get such professional enhancement in place,” Ms Grantham said. “Philanthropy is becoming the vehicle of change and innovation for the modernisation of the healthcare system. It is harder for government to allocate resources to items, such as human capital investment and research that may have a longer pay-off and, increasingly, that is where philanthropy comes into play.”

The donation also marked a new direction for Mr Ho in the healthcare field, moving from capital development of buildings such as Robert H. N. Ho Research Centre and The Greta and Robert H. N. Ho Centre for Psychiatry and Education (The Hope Centre) in Vancouver into human capital support, which he sees as the critical component in moving our lives forward. Such a move fits well with his ability to notice areas of social significance that are often overlooked by the philanthropic world and a willingness to pioneer without the need for personal visibility. “I don’t want to be seen as a publicity grabber,” he said. “I am doing this for society.”