AHRQ Publishes Guide on Patient Engagement

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Posted By: Roberta Mullin July 24, 2013

Patient EngagementHospital Guide on Patient Engagement

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the lead Federal agency under the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) for improving the quality of health care for all Americans. As one of 12 agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, AHRQ supports health services research that will improve the quality of health care and promote evidence-based decision making. Their newest hospital resource focuses on patient engagement.

Earlier this month the AHRQ made available,  a resource giving hospitals evidence-based strategies to engage patients and families in their care. The field-tested strategies outlined in the new Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Safety and Quality can help hospitals make care better and safer by bridging the communication gaps among patients and families and their health care providers.

Each strategy includes educational tools and resources for patients and families, training materials for health care professionals and real-world examples that show how strategies are being implemented in hospital settings for patient engagement. The strategies describe how patients and families, working with hospital staff, can:

  • Be advisors. How hospitals can recruit and train patients and family members to serve as advisors and train clinicians and hospital staff to work effectively with them.
  • Promote better communication at the bedside to improve quality. How patients and families can interact with the health care team, understand the different roles that team members play and see the importance of being partners with clinicians.
  • Participate in bedside shift reports. Teaching patients and families what a bedside shift report is, how they can contribute to it and how nurses can support those contributions.
  • Prepare to leave the hospital. Different approaches clinicians can use to plan and keep track of the tasks that need to be done before a patient is discharged from the hospital.

All week on HealthcareNOWradio.com, hear some of the industries leading experts on patient engagement and patient advocacy. Hear Regina Holliday on MU Live!, hear about the Louisiana Health IT initiative, “Own Your Own Health on Engage4Health, and Matthew Hager from the National eHealth Collaborative on Learning Lunch. And while you are listening you will hear some of the latest Public Service Announcement from HHS on patient engagement. See all of this weeks radio highlights on patient engagement. And stay tuned for more on patient engagement all this week. Check out the sidebar widget to see what’s playing right now and Rediscover Radio.