Consumer engagement is a two-way process, in which:
‘….. the aspirations, concerns, needs and values of citizens and communities are incorporated at all levels and in all sectors in policy development, planning, decision making, service delivery and assessment … and governments and other businesses and civil society organisations involve citizens, clients, communities and other stakeholders in these processes.’ (Fritz, Williamson and Wiseman 2009)
The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights, developed by the ACSQHC (Australia Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care), specifies the key rights of consumers when seeking or receiving healthcare services. This includes the right for consumers to participate in decisions and choices in individual care and health service planning.
The ‘Doing it with us not for us’ Victorian government participation policy provides strategic direction to consumers, carers and community members. It supports them to work with their health services and the Department of Health and Human Services in improving health policy and planning, care and treatment.
Enhancing health literacy, encouraging community participation and empowering consumers. in particular ‘consumer representation’ is advocated.
The importance of the consumer voice is clearly seen in Standard 2 of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards, ‘partnering with consumers’. The standard aims to “create a health service that is responsive to patient, carer and consumer input and needs”.
Consumer participation in healthcare happens at a number of levels:
- Individual – involvement in individual treatment and care (e.g. person and family centred care; self-management)
- Program – involvement in co-design, implementation and evaluation of programs (e.g. consumers, carers or community members in working groups or committees)
- Organisation – involvement in higher level decision making and governance (e.g. consumer advisory groups; consumer, carer and community members representatives at executive levels)
To best promote and nurture consumer participation health services require::
- A policy stating the organisation’s commitment to consumer participation
- A framework to embed participation throughout the organisation
- Policies and procedures to guide all participation activities
- A participation plan to monitor and evaluate all participation activities
- Resources allocated to support consumer participation
Consumer participation does not just happen at the bedside or at a meeting table. There are many innovative ways to involve consumers in the work of a health service:
- Narratives
- Surveys
- Focus groups
- Rapid improvement events
- Outreach activities
- Co-design
- Evaluation processes
- Staff training
- Staff recruitment
- Formal committees
- Reporting
(Health Issues Center http://www.healthissuescentre.org.au/health-services/consumer-engagement-guide/improving-participation/)
Consumer engagement is known to improve both the quality and safety of health services as well as individual and population health outcomes, whilst also making health services more responsive to the needs of consumers (Flinders University, 2000; Nilsen et al, 2004; Sarrami-Foroushani, 2014).