MAPS launched a new committee in November to support our strategic focus area: Engaging patients, providers and the community for better, safer care across the continuum. Evidence continues to mount that engaged patients get better, safer care and have better outcomes.

 
The committee will focus on:

• Synthesizing existing engagement research and tools and best practices across settings of care to develop simplified and standardized guidance for providers and patients.
• Convening the community to establish a shared understanding about patient and family engagement to align around a set of priorities and expectations in Minnesota.
• Establishing a first-of-its-kind patient and family advisory council across settings of care.

There are 12 committee members from a variety of organizations, and two consumer representatives. The group is considering existing research and toolkits and definitions of patient and family engagement. The next meeting will focus on considerations of a toolkit in the format of an open source, dynamic website. This approach offers the potential of a more flexible, participative set of resources to support patient and family engagement across healthcare setting.

For questions, contact Kathy Welte or Catherine Schramm at MAPS. Committee materials are posted on the MAPS website.

NPSF recently released a new report which reviews the state of the patient safety field and makes eight recommendations for achieving total systems safety and a safety culture.

Click here to download the report from NPSF.