Patients and Families as Advisors in Primary Care
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Three patient and family advisors work together on a safety initiative. |
Patients and families are being asked to take an active role in their own health care and engage as partners with health care providers to improve their own health or that of their family members - whether that means enhancing their ability to prevent illness, taking steps to insure health care safety, or improving their skills to self-manage a chronic condition.
Building a patient- and family-centered primary care system that views patients and their families as essential members of the health care team demands a change in the culture. Patients and families have expertise, experience, and perspectives that are critical to bringing about this transformation. They become valuable teachers and partners in improving the experience of care of others.
Innovative health care systems are involving patients and families as leaders and advisors for peer education and support. Patients and families are participating with providers in developing medical homes and organizational structures and systems that promote collaborative self-management support. They also are involving patients and families as advisors and partners in other quality improvement and redesign initiatives.
Jean Klein had a successful career in real estate for four decades in Colorado. For 25 years, she was "Mrs. Santa Claus" for the local business association's party for children. She never expected to become a patient advisor for a health care system. But today, Jean Klein, age 81, is an active advisor to the Kaiser Permanente Health Care System!
Jean Klein, Patient Advisor, Kaiser Permanente Health Care System; Member, 21st Century Care Innovation Project Team for Skyline Internal Medicine Clinic; Colorado
Read more about other patient and family advisors in primary care
For ideas on how to involve patients and families as advisors, download Patients and Families as Advisors in Primary Care: Broadening Our Vision