Institute for Better Health, Trillium Health Partners, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
PLoS One. 2023 Mar 16;18(3):e0282890. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282890. eCollection 2023.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruptions across healthcare systems globally exposing the precarious state of patient engagement across all levels of healthcare. While evidence is emerging to describe how engagement was affected across various settings, insights about how some organizations at the policy and practice level of healthcare were able to sustain or adapt patient engagement activities is lacking.
This paper addresses the following research question: "How were healthcare, government, and patient partner organizations able to sustain or adapt patient engagement activities during the COVID-19 pandemic?"
A qualitative descriptive study was conducted to understand how patient engagement activities were maintained or adapted in a variety of healthcare, government, and patient partner organizations in Canada throughout the pandemic. This analysis was part of a larger qualitative, multiple case study where one-to-one interviews were conducted with organizational leaders, managers and patient partners.
The following themes were identified as key aspects of maintaining or adapting patient engagement activities: 1) having an embedded organizational culture of patient engagement; 2) adapting patient engagement activities to focus on COVID-19 response efforts; 3) having patient partners who exercised leadership and advocacy to support patient care and experiences during the pandemic; and 4) leveraging virtual technology as a communication tool to engage patient partners.
This paper highlights important insights that may be useful to other health care organizations on how to sustain or adapt patient engagement activities during a healthcare crisis. Having patient engagement embedded within an organization's culture supported by, but not limited to, infrastructure, resources, investments in dedicated staff and patient partner leadership, and communication strategies and tools enabled continued patient engagement activities during the pandemic.
COVID-19 大流行扰乱了全球各地的医疗体系，暴露出医疗保健各个层面患者参与度的不稳定状况。虽然有证据表明在各种环境中参与度受到了怎样的影响，但对于医疗保健政策和实践层面的一些组织如何能够维持或调整患者参与活动的相关见解却很少。
本文旨在探讨以下研究问题：“在 COVID-19 大流行期间，医疗保健、政府和患者伙伴组织如何能够维持或调整患者参与活动？”
本研究采用定性描述性方法，以了解加拿大各地的医疗保健、政府和患者伙伴组织在整个大流行期间是如何维持或调整患者参与活动的。该分析是一项更大的定性、多案例研究的一部分，其中对组织领导者、管理人员和患者伙伴进行了一对一的访谈。
确定了维持或调整患者参与活动的以下主题：1）具有嵌入式的患者参与组织文化；2）调整患者参与活动的重点以应对 COVID-19 应对工作；3）拥有在大流行期间行使领导力和倡导权以支持患者护理和体验的患者伙伴；4）利用虚拟技术作为沟通工具来吸引患者伙伴。
本文强调了在医疗保健危机期间维持或调整患者参与活动的重要见解，这些见解可能对其他医疗保健组织有用。将患者参与嵌入到组织文化中，并得到基础设施、资源、对专职工作人员和患者伙伴领导力的投资、沟通策略和工具的支持，但不仅限于此，这使得在大流行期间能够继续开展患者参与活动。
