WIHI: Giving Patients and Families the Tools to be Health Care Improvers

Amar Shah, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist & Chief Quality Officer, East London NHS Foundation Trust

​Lindsey Bourne, Director of Education, PFCCpartners

Barbara Grey, Director SLaM Partners & Quality Improvement (QI), South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Sarah Davenport, Service User Consultant, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

​Gabrielle Richards, Head of Inclusion, Recovery, Occupational Therapy, and Allied Health Professionals, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust​

 

Patients and families are playing a greater role in health care quality improvement. Over the last decade participation has grown to include serving on Patient and Family Advisory Committees, or PFACs; regularly meeting with hospital board safety and quality committees; joining co-design and co-production initiatives; and speaking or leading sessions at QI conferences.

 Along the way, there's been some exposure to QI principles and methods, but now some organizations believe it's essential for patients and families to have training in basic improvement to enhance their influence and involvement. On the May 17 episode of WIHI, Giving Patients and Families the Tools to Be Health Care Improvers, we discussed getting improvement basics into the hands of patients and their families with East London NHS Foundation Trust and South London and Maudsley Trust and how "service users" have become involved in nearly half the improvement projects happening at their organizations.