Description

Meaningful patient and family engagement is crucial for improving population health, quality of care, and patient safety, as well as reducing unnecessary health care expenditures. Studies have shown that patients who receive enhanced decision support had lower medical costs, fewer hospital admissions, and fewer surgeries for conditions where there are multiple appropriate treatment options, such as knee pain, hip pain, back pain, and certain types of heart conditions (“patient preference-sensitive conditions”). When patients are active partners in care, they are more likely to adhere to care recommendations.

The goal of the task force was to identify evidence-based or evidence-informed strategies to help increase patient and family engagement in health care decision making, support healthy lifestyle changes, improve medication adherence, and engage patients and families as partners in health systems change. All patient and family engagement strategies were evaluated through a lens of improved patient quality of care, improved patient outcomes, improved community health, and reduced unnecessary expenditures. The task force brought together various stakeholders to identify best practices and develop a short- and long-term plan to most effectively catalyze patient engagement in North Carolina.