CAPS provided Patient and Family Engagement technical support to the Hospital Engagement Networks (2012-2015) and Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (2015-2020) programs and the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative (2015-2019). These programs were efforts made by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (the Innovation Center).

The HEN, HIIN and TCPI programs focused on improving Patient Safety, with Patient and Family Engagement (PFE) as an integral part of the work. Over 150 patients, for example, participated on weekly educational webinars in the HEN and HIIN programs. Patients participated in in-person events and were members of Affinity Groups. Affinity Groups are special interest groups that work on specific issues.

For the HIIN program, the CAPS team worked to support the Patient and Family Engagement Contractor, American Institutes of Research or AIR. AIR worked both with the HIINetworks and their hospitals to implement five PFE Metrics. With technical support and regular education efforts, the uptake on the Metrics improved significantly year on year. Major conclusions were:

  1. Patients and families lend new insights into how to achieve quality and safety goals.
  2. Including patient and families in quality improvement efforts leads to greater levels of improvement.
  3. Emerging evidence that utilizing clinical (encounter) PFE strategies, including preadmission planning
    (PFE Metric 1) and bedside rounding (PFE Metric 2) leads to improved outcomes.
  4. Health equity is an important component of understanding how to achieve quality and safety goals.
  5. When a Hospital or practice decides to implement PFE, they will experience greater success if they
    have access to multiple forms of technical assistance, including one on one coaching.

With technical support and regular education efforts, the uptake on the PFE Metrics improved significantly year on year.