Implementation of Patient and Family Advisory Councils in Primary Care Practices in a Large, Integrated Health System

Excerpt

The role of patient engagement in healthcare is well recognized.¹ While some guidelines exist for development of patient councils,² and characteristics of high functioning patient advisory councils have been identified around representative patient sample recruitment, facilitation, accountability, and supportive culture,³ implementation of patient and family engagement is not well standardized. There has been interest in patient engagement in healthcare research,^{4, 5} but there remains a need to describe the process of patient and family involvement in primary care practice including recruitment, goals and expectations, and outcomes of the engagement process. A reporting item tied to reimbursement for The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Comprehensive Primary Care Plus program (CPC+),⁶ (Patient and Caregiver Engagement domain), is that Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) are created with representation of care providers and patients and families from participating primary care practices and that recommendations of the group are integrated into care delivery. We describe the implementation of PFACs across primary care practices to guide care optimization and co-design solutions in a large, integrated healthcare system. …