Considering Patients’ Empowerment in Chronic Care Management: A Cross-Level Approach

Abstract

This paper consists of an analysis of the concept of empowerment—which is often defined as a key issue in health care—at the macro, meso, and micro levels by focusing on health care reform in Belgium. Three research teams collected data and combined them in an inductive secondary analysis. Our preliminary results demonstrate that patient empowerment does not always encompass the same scientific reality. At the macro level, this concept is linked to the authorities’ wish to support at-home care for chronic patients. At the meso level, the role of caregivers in maintaining patients’ autonomy, but also the social conditions of their lives, is a salient component of empowerment. At the micro level, individual and personal features such as identity can influence patient empowerment and behavior in the health care system. This cross-level research suggests that patient empowerment is not sufficiently clearly defined at each level of the care production chain, which could impede the reform of health care. This paper underlines the polysemy of a concept viewed as a milestone in European health care policy and the necessity of a clear, collective definition to operationalize and implement it.

Promoting Hospitals’ Brand Reputation through Mobile Apps. A Quantitative Analysis about the Best Hospitals in Spain

“…In many hospitals, patients' empowerment is not sufficiently clearly defined at each level of the care production chain (Tilkin, De Winter, Ketterer, Etienne, Vanmeerbeek & Schoenaers, 2019), which constitutes a problem because patients cannot share their opinions and make informed decisions (Navarro, 2020). These organiza-Zer 28-55 (2023), 155-178 Pablo Medina Aguerrebere, Eva Medina, Toni González Pacanowski tions need to implement practical initiatives to reinforce patients' empowerment at every level of hospital care (Simonsmeier, Flaig, Simacek & Schneider, 2021).…”

Promoción del empoderamiento social y la educación en salud desde una web institucional: propuesta metodológica de análisis y medición

“…En lo que respecta a la educación y el empoderamiento en cuestiones sanitarias, las investigaciones se centran fundamentalmente en relacionarlo con enfermedades o estados de salud (Porroche Escudero, 2016;Muhith et al, 2019;Sufyanti Arief et al, 2019;Tilkin et al, 2020), con la implicación de los pacientes y familiares (Van Manen et al, 2017;Manga y Sun, 2020;Mogueo et al, 2021), o con el contexto socio cultural y las situaciones de marginalidad (Alonso Puelles, 2017;Herlina, 2019). Cabe destacar algunos estudios de carácter documental (Bacqué & Biewener, 2013;Cerezo et al, 2016;Castro et al, 2016;Cyril et al, 2016;Abel & Hand, 2018) que permiten matizar el concepto y el área de actuación del fenómeno del empoderamiento, así como una reciente tendencia a observar sus efectos y su relación con la alfabetización en salud (Crondahl & Eklun Karlsson, 2016;Marjorie Couture et al, 2018).…”

Promoting Health Education through Mobile Apps: A Quantitative Analysis of American Hospitals

“…Second , they train doctors and patients to efficiently participate in collective decision-making processes concerning the latter’s health [ 17 ]. Third , they define patients’ empowerment at each level of the care production chain to efficiently implement a new medical approach based on health education [ 18 ]. Additionally, fourth , they resort to standard measurement tools to make sure patients understand medical information, and they improve their medical outcomes [ 16 , 19 ].…”

“…This last concept means that patients can share their opinions, experiences, and expectations with other patients, as well as with health professionals, to make informed decisions [ 25 ]. Empowered patients decide whether to be treated or not, whether to be hospitalized or not, and whether to be active or not; being empowered does not necessarily imply making decisions on a health topic that is related to the guidelines imposed by health professionals [ 18 ]. Thanks to empowerment, patients and their relatives reinforce their rights [ 26 ].…”