Patient Provider Decision Sharing

People who are active participants in their own care - in cooperation with health care providers - tend to have better outcomes. Yet often patients receive treatment without fully understanding their options and engaging in the decision process. The National Nursing Centers Consortium collaborating with the Pennsylvania Governor's Office of Healthcare Reform, Temple University, the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making and PHMC implemented a Patient Provider Decision Sharing Pilot Project. The goal of the project is to empower patients to take a more active role in the health care decision making process, thus enabling them to access treatment that appropriately reflects their values. The Project engages patients in meaningful dialogue with health care providers in making decisions about their health, using DVD decision aids produced by Health Dialogue and the option of coaching from certified registered nurse practitioners to ensure understanding of the content in the decision aids and the inclusion of the individual patient's values. The Decision Aids are evidence-based, with the currency of the evidence maintained by the Foundation for Informed Decision Making (www.informedmedicaldecisions.org). An integrated referral management system generates enrollment and track both, the distribution and return of decision aids, as well as the patients progress in decision making. The Patient Provider Decision Sharing project targets Medicaid-qualified patients and has been branded as “Better Decisions Together”. The selected decision aids, coaching process, pre/immediately post and 30 days after viewing surveys and recommendations for the continuation of the project will be shared.