The Opportunity

Patient-centered co-design—the act of collaborating with patients, families, and caregivers as equal partners in designing healthcare activities that affect quality of care and experience—is an opportunity to engage a diverse cross-section of the people who utilize health systems in improving how those systems function. As patients become actively involved in co-design, health systems gain opportunities to improve patient satisfaction and engagement, staff engagement, and overall quality and safety.^1,2

Health systems capture patient feedback in numerous ways—including surveys, online review sites, social media, and Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs)—but this information is not consistently used to identify quality and safety issues. Co-design can help health systems prioritize the information gleaned from surveys and PFACs, pinpoint problems not readily apparent to staff, and engage patients, families, and caregivers in necessary improvement opportunities.¹

Objectives

The NQP Action Team is committed to engaging patients as active partners to improve quality and patient safety within health systems. The NQP Action Team will seek to improve quality and patient safety by creating a forum for healthcare organizations, community partners, patients, and federal agencies to come together to identify implementation strategies to promote patient-centered co-design.

NQF Process

National Quality Forum (NQF) will convene a multi-stakeholder NQP Action Team for NQF member organizations to engage, share, and learn from one another on a topic of national importance. Through a series of web meetings and one in-person forum, the NQP Action Team will develop and share priorities, goals, and promising practices to inspire action in others. The NQP Action Team will explore innovative programs that support patient-centered co-design, identify best practices that promote patient partnerships in designing healthcare processes responsive to patient needs, and share lessons for quality improvement and patient safety. The NQP Action Team will begin its work in December 2019 and will conclude in summer 2020. A summary of the NQP Action Team discussions and findings will be shared with the public next year.

NQP Action Teams are limited to NQF member organizations in good standing. Composition of NQP Action Teams emphasizes a balance of public and private stakeholder representation and diverse perspectives, as well as content expertise and/or leadership in patient-centered co-design.

Sponsorship

NQF gratefully acknowledges support from the following organizations towards the NQP work on patient-centered co-design: Nursing Alliance for Quality Care, Silver Sponsor; Compassus, General Sponsor.

For more information on this project or if your organization is interested in sponsoring this initiative, please contact Charles Amos at nationalqualitypartners@qualityforum.org.

¹ Robert G, Cornwell J, Locock L, et al. Patients and staff as codesigners of healthcare services. BMJ. 2015;350:g7714. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g7714.

² Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety: Information to Help Hospitals Get Started: How Patient and Family Engagement Benefits Your Hospital. Rockville, MD: AHRQ; 2017. https://www.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/professionals/systems/hospital/engagingfamilies/howtogetstarted/How_PFE_Benefits_Hosp_508.pdf. Last accessed September 2019.