Partnering with Patients to Improve Quality

Building successful partnerships with patients and families may be a key strategy in a hospital's quality improvement efforts.

The Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence guide “Partnering to Improve Quality and Safety: A Framework for Working with Patient and Family Advisors” provides information and best practices for hospital and care system leaders: whom to recruit as advisors, how to prepare patient and family advisors and how to create a culture of engagement in the organization. The guide also includes suggested metrics for determining the effectiveness of these partnerships and addresses HIPAA and other concerns. Staff members from hospitals and care systems have worked with patient and family advisors on teams to improve discharge, conduct root cause analyses, and discuss and test processes to reduce infections, decrease falls and prevent readmissions, to name a few examples. Patient and family advisors offer a fresh perspective and their involvement can help accelerate patient safety and quality improvement efforts. This guide was developed by the Symposium for Leaders in Healthcare Quality.

HPOE.org features many other resources on improving quality and patient safety and increasing patient and family engagement, including:

Best Practices for Patient and Family Engagement (chair file about Schneck Medical Center in Seymour, Ind.)
The Current State of Patient and Family Engagement Strategies in American Hospitals (slide presentation from HPOE Live! webinar featuring University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, Chicago; Health Central Hospital, Ocoee, Fla.; Schneck Medical Center, Seymour, Ind.)
Engaging Health Care Users: A Framework for Healthy Individuals and Communities (AHA Committee on Research report)
A Leadership Resource for Patient and Family Engagement Strategies (AHA guide)