The concept of engaging patients in their health decisions is more than 20 years old, but in a fee-for-service environment, they were often ignored if they dissuaded patients from lucrative elective procedures.
Shared decision making, a practice where patients and providers make health care decisions together results in reduced costs and healthier, happier patients. Implementing such programs requires cultural change and can be challenging. Physicians must cede some control to the patient and that change can be hard.
Ten years ago, Massachusetts General Hospital initiated a shared decision making pilot program in a single primary care practice. Today that program has grown to include all adult primary care practices and has been extended to specialty practices in orthopedics, cardiology and obstetrics/gynecology.
Through the program, patients now better understand their testing and treatment options and partake in higher-quality conversations with their physicians.
In this session, attendees will learn first-hand the best practices that lead to shared-decision making success.
