New change package provides a roadmap for health systems to develop and sustain consumer engagement strategies at the organizational level.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, May 21, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Health Care Transformation Task Force (HCTTF or Task Force), a group of leading health care payers, providers, purchasers, and patient organizations, along with Community Catalyst, a national non-profit advocacy organization working to build the consumer and community leadership required to transform the American health system, today released comprehensive guidance for health systems looking to engage consumers in organizational level decision-making.

Delivering high quality person-centered care involved more than just determining the best course of treatment; it requires health care organizations built around patient needs. Engaging directly with patients is one of the most effective ways for an organization to ensure its policies actually reflect the needs of those they serve. The new change package, Organizational-Level Consumer Engagement: A Guide to Implementing and Sustaining Successful Strategies, is designed to serve as a roadmap of key action steps, self-assessment questions, and useful resources for designing, implementing, and scaling engagement strategies. This resource provides tools to help organizations sustain consumer engagement strategies and builds upon a case study report released earlier this year which details the efforts of three leading health care organizations that are successfully implementing consumer engagement strategies at the organizational level.

“Improving provider engagement with patients and families is critical to the meaningful transformation in the health care system. This new resource will be instrumental to provider organizations seeking to build effective consumer engagement strategies,” said Jeff Micklos, Executive Director of the Health Care Transformation Task Force.

“Incorporating consumer perspectives into organization-level decision making is an essential undertaking,” said Ann Hwang, Director of the Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation at Community Catalyst. “This change package makes that undertaking more manageable and helps organizations engage a diverse set of patients and families from historically-excluded populations as a means to overcome health disparities.”

Keri Sperry, Senior Program Manager, Patient Engagement at Partners HealthCare said, “Determining staffing needs and a budget are core components of building a sustainable strategy, but this can be a challenge for providers. This resource offers helpful examples of the approaches other organizations have used to allocate resources to do this work.”

“This change package helps health care organizations develop a meaningful engagement strategy that incorporates partnership with patient and family members at all stages—from planning to implementation to scaling,” said Pam Dardess, MPH, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Operations, Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care.

“Successful engagement efforts require health care organizations approach patients and families as equal partners and understand the value of equal partnership, it's the key foundation on which engagement is built,” said Hala Durrah, MTA, Patient Family Engagement Consultant and Advocate. “This means including patients and families in planning and implementation efforts from beginning to end, taking action on input, providing support for their participation, and communicating to them and the organization the impact of their work.”

The Task Force and Community Catalyst trust that health care organizations will find this resource useful in helping to gain leadership buy-in and develop sustainable strategies to help put the consumer voice back in consumer engagement. The current pandemic is providing a stark reminder of the disparities many patients face and the impacts on health care outcomes. Now more than ever, it is critical that health care organizations use engagement strategies to incorporate the needs and perspectives of consumers into operational decision-making.

ABOUT COMMUNITY CATALYST
The Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation (CCEHI) at Community Catalyst is a hub devoted to teaching, learning and sharing knowledge to bring the consumer experience to the forefront of health innovation in order to deliver better care, better value and better health for every community, particularly vulnerable and historically underserved populations. The Center engages in investments in state and local advocacy, leadership development, research and evaluation, and consultative services to delivery systems and health plans. For more information, visit www.healthinnovation.org.

ABOUT HEALTH CARE TRANSFORMATION TASK FORCE
The Health Care Transformation Task Force is a unique collaboration of patients, payers, providers and purchasers working to lead a sweeping transformation of the health care system. By transitioning to value-based models that support the Triple Aim of better health, better care and lower costs, the Task Force is committed to accelerating the transformation to value in health care. To learn more, visit WWW.HCTTF.ORG.

Megan Zook
Health Care Transformation Task Force
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