March 2012 - open access - International Perspectives on Patient Engagement: Results from the 2011 Commonwealth Fund Survey + link to separate blog posting - related issue...Engaging the Already Engaged - 2/2012

International Perspectives on Patient Engagement: Results from the 2011 Commonwealth Fund Survey - The Commonwealth Fund

Key Findings

• To assess the level of patients’ engagement with their regular doctors, the researchers analyzed responses to survey items on whether the doctor spends enough time with patients, explains things in a way that is easy to understand, and encourages questions. Patients in Norway and Sweden were the least likely to be engaged by their regular providers, with only about one of three responding positively to all three questions. At the top end of the range, at least two of three patients in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S. reported positive care interactions.
• In seven of the 11 countries—Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S.—patients with below-average incomes were significantly less likely to have been engaged by their regular doctor in their care. The U.S. stood out for the widest income-based disparities.
• Survey participants were asked how often the specialist physicians treating them provide opportunities to ask questions about recommended treatments, tell them about their treatment choices, and involve them as much as they would like in decisions about their care. Four-fifths of patients in Switzerland and the U.K. replied “always” or “often” to all three questions, as did two-thirds or more of Dutch, New Zealand, and U.S. respondents. Respondents in France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden were the least likely to report shared decision-making with specialists.
• In all countries, patients reporting positive communication and engagement with their regular doctor were far more likely to rate the quality of care they received in the past year as “excellent” or “very good.” The difference was greatest in the U.S.: 78 percent of patients who said they were engaged in their care rated the quality of their care highly, compared with 43 percent of those who said they were not engaged.
• Engaged patients were also less likely to report a medical, medication, or lab test error in the past two years, and had more positive views of the health system as a whole.  

 

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OVARIAN CANCER and US: the Commonwealth Fund (Harvard ...

Feb 21, 2012

Tuesday, February 21, 2012. the Commonwealth Fund (Harvard): Who Are We Reaching Through the Patient Portal: Engaging the Already Engaged? http://tinyurl.com/6tqadrd. Blogger Sandi Pniauskas at Tuesday, February 21, 2012 ...

Why Does Patient Activation Matter? An Examination of the Relationships Between Patient Activation and Health-Related Outcomes

This Commonwealth Fund–supported study sought to investigate the extent to which patient activation, as assessed by the Patient Activation Measure (PAM), is related to health and utilization outcomes among a large group of insured patients.

Multinational Comparisons of Health Systems Data, 2011 - The Commonwealth Fund including link to 2011 patient care coordination (11 countries)

"International comparisons of health care systems offer valuable tools to health ministers, policymakers, and academics wishing to evaluate the performance of their country's system. In this chartbook, we use data collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to compare health care systems and performance on a range of topics, including spending, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuticals, prevention, mortality, quality of care, and prices. We present data across several industrialized countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Whenever possible, we also present the median value of all 34 members of the OECD.......

Downloads

• Chartbook (248K PDF)
• • Chartbook (626K PPT) 

    Related

    • In the Literature
      • New 2011 Survey of Patients with Complex Care Needs in Eleven Countries Finds That Care Is Often Poorly Coordinated

How Will States and the Feds Align Medicaid and Subsidized Health Care? The Commonwealth Fund

Statement from Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis: New Census Data on Uninsured Shows Recession Hits Middle-Class Health Care Coverage Hard - The Commonwealth Fund (U.S.)

"....This is not the time to be talking about repealing health reform. It is urgently needed and should be accelerated. The nation cannot afford to ignore the plight of millions of Americans whose health is at risk, and whose health and productivity are key to revitalizing the American economy....."

Canada playing in wrong health league - Michael Rachlis

Note: article relates to the  U.S.-based Commonwealth Fund report of June 25th, 2010 (see prior blog post); this was not the first Commonwealth Fund analysis which compared different countries on a variety of indices with Canada and the U.S. coming in dead last in overall rankings.

"The report compared Canada with other countries 18 times in the text. These included two favourable comparisons and 16 unfavourable ones, including indictments for long waits, the poor management of chronic conditions (like diabetes), the lack of electronic systems, poor care coordination and the failure to involve patients in decisions about their care."
Dr. Michael Rachlis is a health policy analyst and an associate professor at the University of Toronto.