Objective
Recognition is growing that to create truly patient‐centred care, health‐care organizations need to partner with patients around care design. More research into the benefits of engaging patients and the most effective ways of partnering with them is needed.
Methods
This study assessed the process and impact of a collaborative effort to design a new clinic service that balanced the number of patient and clinical provider/staff codesigners involved and recruited patients to represent diverse perspectives. Data sources included interviews with participants, event observation and participant surveys.
Results
Our evaluation found that including patients as equal partners improved the design process by infusing a real‐world, patient perspective. The pre‐event orientation and interactive methods used in the event fostered positive collaboration, as well as personal growth for the patient codesigners.
Conclusion
This study demonstrated the feasibility and benefits of including a roughly equal number of patients and clinical providers/staff in design events and ensuring that the patients represent diverse perspectives.
The authors identified 1,800,948 patients who made 2,326,701 health care encounters eligible for HIV testing before implementation (1/08-6/12) and 1,362,479 eligible encounters after implementation (1/13-6/15). The sameday HIV testing rate increased from 36.7% to 44.1%, a significant increase. The positive test result rate increased from 0.02% to 0.04% (p < 0.001). During the postimplementation period, fewer HIVinfected patients had a CD4+ cell count below 200 and/or HIV viral load of 10,000 copies/mL or higher at diagnosis.
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