Moving From Mandate To Reality: A Roadmap For Patient And Family Engagement

Abstract

The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) moved patient and family engagement to center stage in health care reform. The law mentions “patient-centered care” at least 40 times, with explicit references to patient engagement, patient experience, health literacy and shared decision making. Evidence is growing that meaningful patient and family engagement can help achieve the triple aim of better quality, better outcomes and lower health care costs and substantially reduce preventable harm. Yet, despite these advances, the full promise of engagement remains mostly untapped, and much confusion remains about what constitutes meaningful patient and family engagement, and importantly, how to translate this evidence broadly into routine health care practice.