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. 2023 Feb 20;23(1):173.
doi: 10.1186/s12913-023-09098-z.

How did healthcare professionals define patient engagement in quality management? A survey study

Ana Maria Saut  1   2 , Linda Lee Ho  3 , Simone Berger  3 , Fernando Tobal Berssaneti  3
Affiliations

How did healthcare professionals define patient engagement in quality management? A survey study

Ana Maria Saut et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Background: Patient and family engagement (PFE) can positively impact the patient experience and care process outcomes. There is no unique type of PFE, and the process is usually defined by the quality management department or professionals responsible for this process in the hospital. The objective of this study is to define PFE in quality management based on the professional's perspective.

Method: A survey was carried out with 90 professionals from Brazilian hospitals. There were two questions aimed at understanding the concept. The first was a multiple-choice question to identify synonyms. The second was an open-ended question to develop the definition. A content analysis methodology was employed by applying techniques for thematic and inferential analysis.

Results: Three words were classified as synonyms by more than 60% of respondents: involvement, participation, and centered care. The participants described patient participation at both the individual (related to the treatment) and organizational levels (related to quality improvement). The PFE in the treatment is related to the development, discussion and decision-making about the therapeutic plan, participation in each step of care, and knowledge of the institution's quality and safety processes. At the organizational level, engagement in quality improvement includes the involvement of the P/F in all processes of the institution, from strategic planning to the design or improvement processes, as well as active participation in institutional committees or commissions.

Conclusion: The professionals defined engagement in two levels (individual and organizational) and the results suggest that their point of view can influence the practice in the hospitals. Professionals of hospitals that implemented mechanisms of consult defined PFE more in the individual level. On the other hand, professionals of hospitals that implemented mechanisms of involvement considered PFE more focus in the organizational level.

Keywords: Patient Participation; Patient Safety; Quality improvement; Quality of Health Care.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Chart of synonyms of the expression 'patient engagement' according to the number of respondents (N = 90). Source: The authors. Note: The numbers in the graph represent the total of respondents who classified the term as a synonym. The respondents could choose more than one option; for this reason, the sum of the total number of responses was greater than the sample size (90)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Word frequency cloud of patient engagement description. Source: NVivo® software. The size of the words in the cloud is proportional to the frequency of citations
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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