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Providing accessible service for people with disabilities

St. John’s Rehab Hospital ensures that people with disabilities have full access and benefit equally from all of our services and goods. The policies below outline our approach to providing accessible services.

Reports and Accessibility Plans

 

Independence, Dignity, Integration and Equality of Opportunity

The provision of goods and services by all St. John’s Rehab Hospital staff, contractors, volunteers, sisters, physicians, students and auxiliary incorporate and respect the core principles of independence, dignity and equality of opportunity in allowing people with disabilities to fully benefit from the same services, in the same place and in the same or similar manner as other members of the public.

Use of Personal Assistive Devices

People with disabilities have the right to use their own personal assistive devices to access goods and use services provided by St. John’s Rehab Hospital, unless there is an associated risk to the person with the disability or any other person when using the device.

To enable access to all goods and services and promote independence St. John’s Rehab Hospital provides appropriate and necessary assistive devices to all people with a disability based on assessed need. All staff and volunteers have knowledge of appropriate and safe use of assistive devices that are provided by St. John’s Rehab Hospital.

The following are available for all people assessed as requiring assistive devices who access goods and services at St. John’s Rehab Hospital:

Related procedure for patient use of assistive devices:

Communication

All staff, volunteers, physicians, contractors, sisters and auxiliary communicates with persons with a disability in a manner that takes into consideration the person’s disability. Communication includes process of providing, sending, receiving and understanding information.

The hospital promotes independence and enables access to all goods and services by using assistive devices or communication services to change the usual method of communication if necessary. The following are various methods that are used to optimize communication for persons with a disability:

Use of Guide Dogs and Service Animals

People with disabilities have the right to be accompanied by their guide dog or service animal to enable independence in accessing goods and services while on St. John’s Rehab Hospital premises. Accommodation will be made for service animals taking into consideration the safety of others and laws that exclude service animals. If a service animal is excluded by another law, other measures will be provided to ensure that the person with a disability is able to access good and services.

Use of a Support Person

People with a disability who are accompanied by a support person have the right to have access to that support person while at the hospital to assist them with communication, mobility, personal care or medical needs to enable access to goods and services provided by St. John’s Rehab Hospital.

A support person may be a regulated health professional or unregulated person such as a family member, volunteer or friend. This policy on the use of support persons, regulated or unregulated, acknowledges the need to ensure confidentiality and adhere to the hospital's code of business conduct. As such, support persons are expected to sign a St. John's Rehab Hospital confidentiality agreement, and review and agree with the code of business conduct policy. Where required, the support person will be asked to identify the disability-related service(s) he/she provides.

For a regulated support person, upon provision of evidence required by the hospital and confirmation that all parties are knowledgeable of hospital policies and expectations; accommodations are made to incorporate the support person in the patient’s treatment and goal plans.

The patient and/or family must notify Patient Services Manager (PSM) of request for the attendance of a support person, and for information about policies and procedures related to the presence of a support person.

Temporary Service Disruptions

St. John’s Rehab Hospital provides notice to all people that rely on and access goods and services at the hospital in the event of a temporary disruption to the facilities or services.

The notice of disruption includes:

Examples of when notices are provided include:

St. John’s Rehab Hospital is committed to ensuring that these communications are made accessible to people with disabilities. The information is posted at a conspicuous place on premises, on the website or by other methods as necessary to meet identified communication needs.

Training and Education for Staff

St. John’s Rehab Hospital provides education and training for any person who interacts with the public or third party on behalf of St. John’s Rehab on any topics related to customer service as it relates to people with a disability. Any person includes those that participate in the development of hospital policies, procedures and practices that govern the provision of goods or services and those that provide the goods and services to the public or third parties.

The training and education includes:

Process for Providing Feedback

St. John’s Rehab Hospital has processes and various methods in place to obtain feedback from any person who uses or is impacted by the provision of goods and services at the hospital. The hospital has a process for tracking, analyzing and addressing any concerns. Any person can contact the hospital with their questions, comments or concerns via e-mail (info@stjohnsrehab.com), telephone, in writing, in person or using any other method.

Information regarding the complaint and feedback process is available in our Frequently Asked Questions under the heading Hospital Policies and Procedures. This information is also provided in the patient information guide which is given to every patient upon admission.

Notification of Customer Service Standard Policies, Practices and Procedures

St. John’s Rehab Hospital ensures that all policies, practices and procedures related to the customer service standard are available upon request. The documents are provided in a manner that takes into account a person’s disability. Patients, visitors and other customers may contact their Team Coordinator, Patient Services Manager or the Information Desk at any time for information about the hospital’s accessibility policies and practices.

Notification that policies, practices and procedures related to the customer service standard exist is communicated through this website and the printed patient information guide, which is provided to every patient on admission. If required, the policies, practices and procedures can be provided verbally by members of the patient’s care team.