Quality Tool Box

Consumer Engagement

 

How to Leverage Consumer Partnerships

This document outlines a set of best practices for Alliances to recruit, orient, and support consumer stakeholders. It also contains resources consumers can use directly. While these best practices are aimed at consumer representatives, they are relevant to any group of volunteer stakeholders. AF4Q Alliances have implemented these best practices successfully. Download now »

Creating a Consumer Advisory Council

This factsheet is intended to walk Alliance staff through the process of creating a Consumer Advisory Council. Download now »

Email Templates

This set of six email templates give Alliances a mechanism for engaging prospective and current consumer representatives in all aspects of AF4Q, moving them from awareness, to understanding, to buy-in and finally to activation.

 

Four Stages of Consumer Engagement

This resource provides a guide to best practices in consumer engagement presented in a step-by-step manner. This guide should be adapted to meet the unique needs of each Alliance and its community. Download now »

 

Alliance Stakeholder Perspectives

This document summarizes the viewpoints of consumers, health insurance plans, healthcare providers, and employers around each of the AF4Q focus areas as a means of comparing and contrasting opinions. Download now »

 

OnBoarding Materials

This collection of documents designed with help from the AF4Q communications firms and the South Central Pennsylvania Alliance is meant as a tool for recruitment and orientation of consumer representatives to AF4Q. The materials provide overviews of AF4Q and health care quality, and share SCPA Alliance operational details. NPWF can help Alliances adapt material to meet their individual needs.

 

Consumer Engagement Best Practices

This fact sheet outlines a set of principles intended to help Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) Alliances fully leverage the capacity of the consumer leaders and consumer organizations in their communities. It also highlights consumer engagement best practices implemented with success by AF4Q Alliances. Download now »

 

Improving Health Care Quality: A Shared Responsibility

This fact sheet outlines the value proposition for engaging in Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) and is aimed at assisting AF4Q Alliances in recruiting consumer stakeholders to engage with their Alliances. Download now »

 

Consumer Engagement Survey

This brief survey is aimed at helping Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) Alliance leaders solicit feedback from the consumer stakeholders — individual consumers and those who represent a specific constituency of consumers or patients — about their experience engaging with the AF4Q Alliances. Download Now »

 

Consumer Engagement Process

This guide defines consumer advocates, provides examples of consumer advocacy organizations, and details a consumer engagement process. Originally developed for Aligning Forces for Quality multi-stakeholder groups, the guide outlines strategies that any entity can implement to effectively engage consumer advocates and achieve an authentic consumer voice. Download now »

 

Effective Consumer Advocacy in a Multi-Stakeholder Setting

This document provides tips and recommendations to help consumer advocates maximize their effectiveness at the multi-stakeholder Alliance table. Download now »

 

Fact Sheet » Overuse, Underuse and Misuse of Medical Care

This fact sheet outlines the three main types of quality problems — underuse, overuse, and misuse of medical care — and the actions you can take reduce them on a state and national level. Download now »

 

Issue Brief » Payment Reforms: What Consumer and Patients Should Know

This document helps consumers and patient advocates prepare to engage in dialogue around payment reform. It provides definitions of various health care payment model alternatives that would serve to reward quality, limit wasteful spending, and encourage better health outcomes. Download now »

 

Fact Sheet » Consumer Definitions

Identifying the appropriate consumer representatives to participate in your Alliance can be challenging. This document defines different types of consumer representatives, describes strengths and values, and provides examples of trusted consumer organizations. Download now »

 

Health Literacy Overview

This document explains the importance of health literacy in understanding and accessing health care information, as well as strategies for making written communication more accessible to a broad audience. Download now »

 

FRY Readability Formula

This document provides directions on applying the FRY Readability Formula to determine the grade level of a written communications piece. Download now »

Patient Empowerment Training Module

Patient Empowerment refers to the concept of consumers and patients taking an active role in their own health care. The toolkit was designed by consumer advocates who work directly with patients or consumers.

 

 

Sample Letter to the Editor on Quality Issues

This sample letter-to-the-editor can be used to raise awareness about better quality care when the state legislature is addressing health care issues. You can also use this as a general template for any letter-to-the-editor. Download now »

 

Alliance Stakeholder Best Practices

This document provides best practices, tips and recommendations for maximizing the engagement of consumer advocates in a multi-stakeholder group. It includes an example of a shared-decision making process called Proposal Based Decision Making. Download now »

 

Collaborating with Consumer Advocates to Disseminate Public Reports

This factsheet discusses how consumer advocates can help your Alliance to disseminate public reports to a consumer audience as well as help raise awareness among patients and consumers around the best use of public reports. The factsheet includes a sample commitment form you can use to secure support from consumer advocates. Download now »

 

 

The Role of Consumer Organizations in Disseminating Health Information

This document outlines the role consumer organization can play in connecting their constituents with information to make informed health care decisions. It includes an explanation of how performance information helps patients, physicians and hospitals as well as a sample list of communication opportunities for consumer organizations. Download now »

 

Health Quality Thesaurus

This tool provides plain language or commonly understood words and phrases to define health care quality terms. This is a great tool to help you design materials for the general public. Download now »


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