Asking “What Matters to You?” to Improve Physician Quality
The Measurement System for Physician Quality Improvement aims to make data accessible to support both physician quality improvement and health system planning decisions. Ultimately, the goal is improving the experience of care for patients. The involvement of patient partners has been instrumental in bringing patients’ and care providers’ perspectives to the process.
Two working groups are currently selecting measures that will let physicians know if they are improving quality of care, and “What Matters to You?” is an important theme in that work.
One of these groups is focused on selecting measures that are relevant to physicians who provide care in emergency departments. Recently, a patient partner shared their lived experience with mental health and this encouraged the group to have conversations that would not have otherwise occurred. This “What Matters to You?” moment has led the BC provincial government, health authorities and physician representatives to identify potential measures that relate to mental health, as well as encouraged the working group to look at measures related to patient-reported experience and outcomes.
When asked to reflect on the experience so far, the patient partner shared that, “Patient partners are really needed on these committees. We have unique experiences, insights and knowledge that differs from the health care partners…the group really embraced me, and I now see that my contributions have made a difference.”
Read more about how to have conversations about what matters.
