The BC Patient Safety & Quality Council held its annual meeting, 2017 quality Forum on March 1-3 in Vancouver, BC.
We had the opportunity to attend a few presentations. This year, the focus was greatly on innovation to achieve improvement.
The event was characterized by multiple participative workshops designed to encourage innovative thinking to look for solutions and improvements on the patient care field.
Of particular interest for me was Tiffany Christensen’s presentation “Partnering with Patients: A Bed’s Eye View” where Ms. Christensen tells her story from a cystic fibrosis patient undergoing two lung transplant to a patient’s advocate promoting a partnership between patient and health care providers.
One of the most important concepts I learned was the one of Patient Activation. As defined by Hibbard “Patient activation is a behavioral concept… It is defined as an individual’s knowledge, skill, and confidence for managing their health and health care’s needs”
In other words, Patient Activation is the process that takes a patient from a passive, disengaged, and overwhelmed by the situation state through stages of being more informed, knowledgeable, and confident to being proactive and taking action to improve their health, which results in improved patient safety, treatment adherence, reduced re-admissions and improved overall outcomes.
One of the most important concepts I learned was the one of Patient Activation. As defined by Hibbard “Patient activation is a behavioral concept… It is defined as an individual’s knowledge, skill, and confidence for managing their health and health care’s needs”
In other words, Patient Activation is the process that takes a patient from a passive, disengaged, and overwhelmed by the situation state through stages of being more informed, knowledgeable, and confident to being proactive and taking action to improve their health, which results in improved patient safety, treatment adherence, reduced readmissions and improved overall outcomes.
Veronica Restelli, Editor
