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Patient Advisors
Person and Family Engagement in Healthcare Quality Improvement
When you or your family member was in the hospital or nursing home, did you think there were things that could have been done better? Or, did you have an especially good experience you wish would always be continued or wish everyone would do? Do you want to give feedback to your primary care physician or home health agency? Do you have ideas about how to make sure other healthcare consumer, residents or families get the best care possible?
Engaged patients can lead to measurable improvements in safety and quality. Qsource wants to help healthcare consumers, families and healthcare professionals work together as partners to promote improvements in care.
Consider becoming a Patient Advisor to give us feedback and ideas to help us improve the quality and safety of healthcare in your community.
Become a Patient Advisor
If you are interested in making a difference and having your voice heard, please complete the contact form below. Someone will email or call you with information about how you can connect with healthcare providers in your state that want to hear from engaged volunteers.
Join us. Together, we can work to make healthcare better.
An advisor is someone who:
- Wants to help improve the quality of care for all patients and family members
- Gives feedback to the healthcare provider based on his or her own experiences.
- Helps providers plan changes to improve how they take care of their patients
- Works with the healthcare team for either short- or long-term commitments, depending on the project
- Volunteers his or her time
atom Advisors provide a voice that represents all healthcare consumerswho receive care. They partner with Qsource staff, doctors, nurses, and healthcare administrators to help improve the quality of care for all patients and family members.
You do not need any special qualifications to be an advisor. What’s most important is your experience as a healthcare consumer, resident or family member.
- Share your story. Advisors help by talking about their healthcare experiences with clinicians, staff, and other patients.
- Participate in discussion groups. Advisors tell us what it’s like to be a patient/resident and what we can do to improve.
- Review or help create educational or informational materials. Advisors help review or create materials like forms, health information handouts, and discharge instructions. Advisors help us make these materials easier for all patients and family members to understand and use.
- Work on short-term projects you care about. We sometimes ask advisors to partner with us in making improvements.
- Serve on our person and family advisory council. Our advisory council discusses and plans changes to improve healthcare quality and safety.
Being an advisor may be a good match with your skills and experiences if you can:
- Speak up and share suggestions and potential solutions to help improve care for others
- Talk about your experiences as a healthcare consumer or family member – but also think beyond your own personal experiences
- Talk about both positive and negative care experiences and share your thoughts on what went well and how things could have been done differently
- Work with people who may be different than you
- Listen to and think about what others say, even when you disagree
- Bring a positive attitude to discussions
- Keep any information you may hear as an advisor private and confidential
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), research shows that when patients are engaged in their healthcare, it can lead to measurable improvements in safety and quality. Qsource wants to help healthcare, families and healthcare professionals work together as partners to promote improvements in care.
Our primary strategies for promoting person and family engagement are to:
- Encourage patients, residents and family members to participate as advisors in a variety of healthcare settings including primary care practices, home health agencies, nursing homes and hospitals.
- Promote better communication among patients, family members and healthcare professionals.
- Implement safe continuity of care by keeping the healthcare consumer and family informed and engaging patients and families in discharge planning throughout a hospital stay.