AHRQ Guide Helps Hospitals Engage Patients and Families in Their Health Care

AHRQ Guide Helps Hospitals Engage Patients and Families in Their Health Care

AHRQ Guide Helps Hospitals Engage Patients and Families in Their Health Care

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) sent this bulletin at 03/05/2014 07:40 AM EST

Research shows that when patients are engaged in their health care, safety and quality can improve measurably. To promote stronger engagement, AHRQ developed the Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety, a tested, evidence-based resource to help hospitals work as partners with patients and families to improve quality and safety.

Among other information, the free guide includes four specific strategies:

• Working with Patients and Families as Advisors—shows how hospitals can work with patients and family members as advisors at the organizational level.
• Communicating to Improve Quality—helps improve communication among patients, family members, clinicians, and hospital staff from the point of admission.
• Nurse Bedside Shift Report—supports the safe handoff of care between nurses by involving the patient and family in the change of shift report for nurses.
• IDEAL Discharge Planning—helps reduce preventable readmissions by engaging patients and family members in the transition from hospital to home.

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Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety

Research shows that when patients are engaged in their health care, it can lead to measurable improvements in safety and quality. To promote stronger engagement, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality developed the Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety, a tested, evidence-based resource to help hospitals work as partners with patients and families to improve quality and safety.

The Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety is a tested, evidence-based resource to help hospitals work as partners with patients and families to improve quality and safety.

The Guide—

• Describes critical opportunities for hospitals to engage patients and families and to create partnerships between patients, families, and hospitals around the same goals.
• Addresses real-world challenges. The Guide was developed, implemented, and evaluated with the input of patients, family members, clinicians, hospital staff, and hospital leaders.
• Helps hospitals engage patients and families, which in turn can help improve quality and safety, respond to health care reform and accreditation standards, improve CAHPS® Hospital Survey scores, improve financial performance, and enhance market share and competitiveness.
• Facilitates implementation and evaluation of each strategy with detailed guidance and customizable tools.
• The Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety is a tested, evidence-based resource to help hospitals work as partners with patients and families to improve quality and safety.

The Guide’s sections include—

• Information to Help Hospitals Get Started addresses:
  • How to select, implement, and evaluate the Guide’s strategies.
  • How patient and family engagement can benefit your hospital.
  • How senior hospital leadership can promote patient and family engagement.
• Strategy 1: Working With Patients and Families as Advisors shows how hospitals can work with patients and family members as advisors at the organizational level.
• Strategy 2: Communicating to Improve Quality helps improve communication among patients, family members, clinicians, and hospital staff from the point of admission.
• Strategy 3: Nurse Bedside Shift Report supports the safe handoff of care between nurses by involving the patient and family in the change of shift report for nurses.
• Strategy 4: IDEAL Discharge Planning helps reduce preventable readmissions by engaging patients and family members in the transition from hospital to home.

Users can download the entire guide in zipped format by selecting:http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/patfamilyengageguide/patfamengagefull.zip; 80 MB.

Current as of June 2013

Internet Citation: Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety . June 2013. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/hospital/engagingfamilies/index.html