Using Patient Communication Boards to ask, “What Matters to You?”

DateJune 8, 2021
TopicsPartnersPatient Engagement

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Patient communication is a critical aspect of providing high-quality care. A recent project at Northern Health to standardize patient communication in acute care focused on the development of boards in each patient room that ask, among other questions, “What matters to you?”

Northern Health began this work in January 2019. Many care providers and patient partners participated in co-design sessions for the creation of the board content later that summer. Patient engagement was a crucial step of this project. A standard board template was developed and tested at multiple acute care sites. Installation of the boards by patient bedsides began in March 2021 and will be completed by the fall.

Northern Health’s Quality Improvement Leads have led the planning and implementation process of the patient communication boards at all 18 acute care sites. While participating in bedside rounds at a site last month, one of the leads noted that ‘What matters to you?’ was a routine question that the care team members asked the patients when the boards were being updated.

Read more about how to have conversations about what matters.