One thing is clear in the chorus of words about patient care today, there is no consensus on a definition for patient engagement. I suggest we are missing something very important because we have a historical precedent for patient involvement in their care that led to positive change. In fact it was patients who became a very powerful force for change because they read, they attended classes and they understood they should be partners in the way they received care. They were engaged. In the 1970s, childbirth education surfaced to help women learn about the normal processes of labor and … [Read more...]
Patient Engagement and Patient Safety: Are They Just Words?
The words, “patient engagement” and “patient safety” seem like common sense in healthcare. However, if you are a professional caring for patients today you can certainly identify with Eliza Doolittle’s lament in My Fair Lady. “Words, words, words! I’m so sick of words I get words all day through First from him, now from you Is that all you blighters can do?” Patients and families are equally peppered with these terms on information sheets, brochures, videos and media reports. The latter are often headlines that depict a collapse in patient safety where someone suffers or dies as … [Read more...]
Talking to Ourselves
Infections, medication errors, and hospital readmission are all topics in the lay press that raise everyone’s concerns. But what is a person to do when they are admitted or have a loved one in the hospital? This is a very important question and the answers are illusive despite the mounds of articles, press releases, and gazillions megabits of political rhetoric. As an industry, healthcare has done a good job identifying many of its problems and as a result there are plenty of businesses circling the scarred, and even bleeding, hospitals promising to heal those wounds. Clinicians, … [Read more...]
Influencing Change in Today’s Hospital Care
Although regulators and payers influence many of the actions surrounding patient care, particularly in the hospital, the unadvertised and underused driving force for positive change comes from these important groups: These groups are . . . Patients & Families Clinicians Employers Their power comes from shared goals. (1)They want to achieve good outcomes from the care that is rendered. (2) They seek to prevent harm and (3) control unnecessary costs that are associated with medical mistakes, such as healthcare acquired infections. This is called “patient-centric” care. … [Read more...]
The 21st Century Patient
Welcome to my blog: 21st Century Patients. I hope to provoke critical thinking, and some discussion, on what it means to be a patient today. The culture of patient care is changing from “follow the rules as we prescribe them” to one that reflects the rapid pace of increasing knowledge that demands we think and act as partners with patients and families. This partnership is the basis of shared decision-making for the patient’s plan of care. An Outdated Approach We will explore the implications (and dangers) of holding on to the outdated idea that a “good patient” takes everything at … [Read more...]