Patient Engagement

Engaging patients in their healthcare is essential to combating the escalating burden of chronic disease.  If patients can take steps to prevent and manage chronic conditions at home, their health will improve and the cost of their health care will reduce as their hospital visits decrease. Patient engagement is critical to achieving the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI’s) Triple Aim: to improve population health and the experience of care while lowering cost.

Based on a review of cutting edge work on patient engagement around the nation, the UK, and Canada and fueled by discussions with RPCC partners, RPCC has developed a continuum of patient engagement for understanding how patients can better engage in their health care. Health systems embracing this framework can work towards empowering all patients to be engaged in their healthcare at a level that is appropriate for them.

RPCC’s patient engagement work is led by a regional team with representation from Washington, DC, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County, MD, and Prince George’s County, MD. The team participated in IHI’s Triple Aim Initiative, and its continuum was featured in a breakout session at IHI’s Triple Aim Meeting in March 2012 as well as at a breakout session at the Communities Joined in Action Annual Conference in October 2011.

To learn more about RPCC’s patient engagement work, view the resources below:

This single-page graphic gives an illustrated overview of RPCC’s continuum of patient engagement.

This user-friendly resource guide is a listing of prominent patient engagement work that guided the development of RPCC’s continuum of patient engagement.

The full handbook outlines the characteristics of each level of patient engagement – Patient Satisfaction, Informed Choice, Shared Decision Making, Partnering with Patients, Patient Ownership of Their Health, and People Engaged in Population Health – as well as benchmarks and a tool for health systems to assess how much they engage patients at each level.

This two-page summary gives a brief overview of RPCC’s continuum of patient engagement and its importance to improving population health.