New NQF playbook places health practitioners on same page
The National Quality Forum on Monday issued a call to action to make shared decision making a standard of care among health practitioners for all patients, across settings and conditions. The new guide for healthcare providers, the "National Quality Partners Playbook: Shared Decision Making in Healthcare," offers vital guidance for this process of communication in which clinicians and patients work together to make healthcare decisions that align with what matters most to patients.
“We commend the NQF and its Shared Decision Making Action Team for creating practical solutions for implementing SDM supported by high-quality decision aids in clinical practice,” said Peter Goldbach, chief medical officer for Health Dialog, a Rite Aid subsidiary. “The NQF has assembled the highest quality evidence and best practices supporting effective SDM. They’ve called for SDM to be a standard of care and, with the Playbook, are helping care teams address the issues around implementation. We applaud the team’s efforts to expand the value of SDM to a larger group of clinicians and even larger group of patients who can now benefit from the high-quality, person-centered care SDM allows.”
“Even though patients have access to more healthcare information than ever before, in reality, they often may not fully understand important, basic information about the risks and benefits of treatments and alternatives. And even if they do, they often are not given the opportunity by their clinicians to provide meaningful input into their healthcare decisions,” said Maureen Corry, senior advisor for Childbirth Connection programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families, and co-chair of the National Quality Partners Shared Decision Making Action Team.
Patient decision aids are a key component health practitioners can use in shared decision making. When available, these tools provide patients with information on the risks, benefits, challenges, and alternatives to care options and help them clarify and communicate their personal values to their providers.
The NQP Playbook highlights examples of how health practitioners across the nation are integrating and improving shared decision making in clinical practice. To help healthcare organizations effectively implement or strengthen shared decision making, the NQP Playbook identifies practical, real-world actions they can take with varying levels of effort and resources. The actions include educating patients and families about what to expect from providers in the process; advancing healthcare team knowledge and training to foster high-quality shared decision making; applying technology and other investments to help integrate shared decision making into the care delivery process; implementing mechanisms to monitor patient, clinician, and healthcare team engagement in shared decision making; and establishing accountability and incentives for this engagement. The NQP Playbook includes examples for implementation, potential barriers and suggested solutions, and sample tools and resources that are applicable across care settings.
“The NQP Playbook provides practical strategies for organizations to strengthen shared decision making, including the use of high-quality, unbiased, and evidence-based tools called patient decision aids,” Norm Kahn, immediate past executive vice president and CEO for the Council of Medical Specialty Societies and co-chair of the action team, said. “Shared decision making is critical to person-centered care, and should be standard practice for helping patients learn and make decisions about any healthcare treatment, procedure, or intervention they are considering.”
NQF developed the NQP Playbook: Shared Decision Making in Healthcare with input from the NQP Shared Decision Making Action Team. The 20 public- and private-sector experts and national stakeholders who served on the Action Team as technical consultants include patient partners, clinicians, healthcare organizations, specialty societies, and federal agencies. The NQP Playbook built on prior NQF work to evaluate and recommend national standards for decision aids.
NQF will host a public webinar on shared decision making on April 12. A workshop in Philadelphia on March 19 in collaboration with the 2018 Population Health Colloquium will offer strategies for health systems and payers to learn how shared decision making can improve population health.
“We commend the NQF and its Shared Decision Making Action Team for creating practical solutions for implementing SDM supported by high-quality decision aids in clinical practice,” said Peter Goldbach, chief medical officer for Health Dialog, a Rite Aid subsidiary. “The NQF has assembled the highest quality evidence and best practices supporting effective SDM. They’ve called for SDM to be a standard of care and, with the Playbook, are helping care teams address the issues around implementation. We applaud the team’s efforts to expand the value of SDM to a larger group of clinicians and even larger group of patients who can now benefit from the high-quality, person-centered care SDM allows.”
“Even though patients have access to more healthcare information than ever before, in reality, they often may not fully understand important, basic information about the risks and benefits of treatments and alternatives. And even if they do, they often are not given the opportunity by their clinicians to provide meaningful input into their healthcare decisions,” said Maureen Corry, senior advisor for Childbirth Connection programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families, and co-chair of the National Quality Partners Shared Decision Making Action Team.
Patient decision aids are a key component health practitioners can use in shared decision making. When available, these tools provide patients with information on the risks, benefits, challenges, and alternatives to care options and help them clarify and communicate their personal values to their providers.
The NQP Playbook highlights examples of how health practitioners across the nation are integrating and improving shared decision making in clinical practice. To help healthcare organizations effectively implement or strengthen shared decision making, the NQP Playbook identifies practical, real-world actions they can take with varying levels of effort and resources. The actions include educating patients and families about what to expect from providers in the process; advancing healthcare team knowledge and training to foster high-quality shared decision making; applying technology and other investments to help integrate shared decision making into the care delivery process; implementing mechanisms to monitor patient, clinician, and healthcare team engagement in shared decision making; and establishing accountability and incentives for this engagement. The NQP Playbook includes examples for implementation, potential barriers and suggested solutions, and sample tools and resources that are applicable across care settings.
“The NQP Playbook provides practical strategies for organizations to strengthen shared decision making, including the use of high-quality, unbiased, and evidence-based tools called patient decision aids,” Norm Kahn, immediate past executive vice president and CEO for the Council of Medical Specialty Societies and co-chair of the action team, said. “Shared decision making is critical to person-centered care, and should be standard practice for helping patients learn and make decisions about any healthcare treatment, procedure, or intervention they are considering.”
NQF developed the NQP Playbook: Shared Decision Making in Healthcare with input from the NQP Shared Decision Making Action Team. The 20 public- and private-sector experts and national stakeholders who served on the Action Team as technical consultants include patient partners, clinicians, healthcare organizations, specialty societies, and federal agencies. The NQP Playbook built on prior NQF work to evaluate and recommend national standards for decision aids.
NQF will host a public webinar on shared decision making on April 12. A workshop in Philadelphia on March 19 in collaboration with the 2018 Population Health Colloquium will offer strategies for health systems and payers to learn how shared decision making can improve population health.