Building a Planning Workgroup

The development of an engagement strategy requires the dedicated attention of a planning workgroup to lead the planning and report recommendations to health system leaders. This workgroup may include one or more lead staff members solely dedicated to engagement work or may be comprised of people sharing time between this effort and their existing role.

Key actions for building a planning workgroup

• Create protected time and establish expectations or incentives for organization leadership and staff to participate in meetings to discuss engagement strategies and to implement ideas that come from these meetings.
• Recruit diverse workgroup members. The workgroup should include representation from organization-level leadership, frontline staff, patients and family members, and community leaders. Special effort should be made to ensure that patient and community members are truly representative of the community served and bring an outside perspective to the health care organization.
• Schedule planning meetings with a focus on accessibility for patients and families to encourage their attendance and support their active participation. Factors to consider include announcing the calendar of scheduled meetings and providing written materials well in advance, hosting meetings at times and locations that are convenient for the patients participating, providing travel reimbursement, stipends and other supports such as on-site child/elder care, and interpreter services.
• Establish a charter that clearly states the purpose and goals of the group. Clarity of purpose is key to successful group planning efforts. The charter should be developed collaboratively with the workgroup members and reflect both the needs of the health care organization and the patients and community members.  
• Provide the training and mentoring required to support individuals’ success. This training should be ongoing and reflective of the changing health care environment as it relates to patient services and patient/family/community needs. For staff, this may consist of training and mentoring on engagement considerations and strategies, and for consumers this may be training on the health care organization’s service lines, care delivery and policies. For patients and community members this may include orientation to your organization and background on potential engagement approaches.
• Encourage the active participation of patient representatives and ensure that their feedback is reflected in planning decisions.

Resources

1. Foundational Materials
   • Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care: A patient and Family Advisory Council Workplan-Getting Started
   • Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care: Creating Advisory Councils
   • Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care: Advancing the Practice of Patient Centered Care - How to Get Started
   • Planetree: Person-Centered Care Steering Committee Sample Charter
   • AHRQ: Working with Patients and Families as Advisors Implementation Handbook
2. Orientation and Training
   • Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care: How to be an Effective Patient and Family Advisor
   • AHRQ: Patient and Family Advisor Orientation Manual
   • Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care: Strategies for Educating Staff
3. Additional Resources
   • Planetree: PDSA Improvement Worksheet for Teams
   • Planetree: Process Improvement Tips and Tools