World Health Organization: Patient engagement (December 2016)

Summary

This report is part of a technical series on safer primary care, published by the World Health Organization. The series explores the magnitude and nature of harm in the primary care setting from a number of different angles and provides some possible solutions and practical next steps for improving safety.

The patient engagement report examines why it is important to involve people using services in improving safety and how this might best be done.

Content

This report looks at factors affecting patient engagement, potential solutions and practical next steps.

Suggested strategies to enhance patient engagement for safer primary care include:

• educating health care providers about patient engagement
• supporting patients to become actively involved
• broadening the ways in which patients are involved
• recognising the importance of communities
• providing an enabling and supportive environment.