Patient engagement: WHO technical series on safer primary care

Abstract

Health care systems are complex and include multiple stakeholders and providers. People using health care services have an essential role as co-producers of their health and indeed they represent the only consistent factor throughout the care pathway. They also hold key information vital for process, systems and policy improvement. Tapping into such a rich resource could contribute significantly to improving safety in primary care. This monograph examines why it is important to involve people using services in improving safety and how this might best be done. The term “patient engagement” is used throughout this document and refers to the process of building the capacity of patients, families, carers, as well as health care providers, to facilitate and support the active involvement of patients in their own care, in order to enhance safety, quality and people-centredness of health care service delivery. There are many definitions of patient engagement, but all share an underlying theme: the facilitation and strengthening of the role of those using services as coproducers of health, and health care policy and practice.