AHRQ Releases Success Stories Shown to Help Engage Patients and Families in Primary Care

New success stories from an ongoing AHRQ project, Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings by Engaging Patients and Families, provide demonstrated experience for improving patient safety in primary care. The stories spotlight Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which provided patients with access to their clinical notes; Bellin Health (Green Bay, WI), which implemented a comprehensive model of team-based primary care leading to improved patient and provider satisfaction; and First Street Family Health Center (Salida, CO), which formed a patient and family advisory council that transformed the way the practice functions. While the patient engagement effort is under way, project components are being released over the next year to support primary care practices in their efforts to improve patient safety.

AHRQ--Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: Advancing Excellence in Health Care

Patient and Family Engagement in Primary Care

Case Studies

Research shows that patient engagement in health care can lead to measurable improvements in safety and quality. To promote stronger engagement, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is developing a guide to help patients, families, and health professionals in primary care settings work together as partners to promote improvements in care. The guide will contain interventions that can be implemented in primary care practices. In addition to the development of interventions, exemplar primary care practices were identified. The case studies below describe the experiences of several exemplar practices that have increased patient and family engagement in primary care and affected patient safety.

OpenNotes

OpenNotes is a tool that gives patients access to their medical records so they can read encounter notes. Patients can access their notes online through the patient portal or in hard copy from a printout.

Patient Access to Medical Notes in Primary Care: Improving Engagement and Safety—Case Study (PDF File, 198.42 KB).

One-Page Summaries

OpenNotes: Giving Patients Access to Medical Notes—For Providers (PDF File, 109.93 KB).
OpenNotes for Patients: Access Your Own Medical Notes—For Patients (PDF File, 120.2 KB).

Partnering To Improve Safety, Quality, and the Patient Experience

A Patient and Family Advisory Committee (PFAC) is a group of patients, family members, office staff, and primary care providers working together to improve safety, quality, and the patient experience.

Partnering With Patients To Improve Quality, Safety, and the Patient Experience—Case Study (PDF File, 147.54 KB).

One-Page Summaries

Partnering To Improve Safety, Quality, and the Patient Experience—For Providers (PDF File, 122.91 KB).
Partnering To Improve Safety, Quality, and the Patient Experience—For Patients (PDF File, 122.95 KB).

Team-Based Care

Team-based care is a transformative method of delivering care that emphasizes teamwork. In addition to the patient and family, the care team may include a doctor or nurse practitioner, registered nurse, care team coordinator, schedule, and even pharmacist or social worker.

Team-Based Primary Care: Convergence of Improving Engagement, Safety, and Enhanced Joy in Practice—Case Study (PDF File, 143.05 KB).

One-Page Summaries

Team-Based Care: Improving Safety, Engagement, and Joy—For Providers (PDF File, 89.69 KB).
Team-Based Care: Work in Partnership With Your Health Care Team—For Patients (PDF File, 117.3 KB).

Return to Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings by Engaging Patients and Families

Page last reviewed May 2016

Internet Citation: Patient and Family Engagement in Primary Care. May 2016. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/patient-family-engagement/pfeprimarycare/casestudies.html