AHRQ Offers New Guide to Help Hospitals Engage Patients and Families in Their Health Care

AHRQ has announced a new online resource designed to help hospitals engage patients and families in their care. The field-tested strategies outlined in AHRQ’s 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. The guide provides four evidence-based strategies on how patients and family members can (1) advise and train clinicians and hospital staff to work effectively with them, (2) promote better bedside communication to improve quality, (3) participate in bedside shift reports, and (4) manage tasks in preparing to leave the hospital. 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. Select to access AHRQ’s press release, the guide, and a 60-second video clip featuring AHRQ’s Jeff Brady, M.D., discussing the guide.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

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.

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/patfamilyengageguide/index.html