Patient Advocacy for Health Care Quality: Strategies for Achieving Patient-centered Care

Patient Advocacy for Health Care Quality: Strategies for Achieving Patient-centered Care

Article Type: Recent publications From: International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Volume 21, Issue 7

Please note that unless expressly stated, these are not reviews of titles given. They are descriptions of the books, based on information provided by the publishers.

Jo Anne L. Earp, Elizabeth A.French and Melissa B. Gilkey,Jones & Bartlett Publishers, Inc.,January 2008,ISBN-13: 9780763749613,

Keywords: Patient advocacy, Healthcare quality improvement, Patient-centered care, Change management

Patient advocacy has emerged in response to widespread problems in US healthcare quality. Many patients are frustrated or even endangered by the care they receive. As many as 98,000 people die each year due to medical errors. Patients have difficulty establishing relationships with providers or getting good information about their conditions and find their providers unable to recognize their unique expertise about their conditions. This book identifies parent advocacy-from individual, to organizational, to grassroots policy advocacy-as a powerful source of pressure and as a potentially effective way to initiate needed changes in US healthcare.

As a contribution to the emerging healthcare quality movement, Patient Advocacy for Health Care Quality: Strategies for Achieving Patient-Centered Care is distinct from any others of its kind in its focus on the consumer’s perspective and in its emphasis on how advocacy can influence change at multiple social levels. This introductory volume synthesizes patient advocacy from a multi-level approach and is an ideal text for graduate students, as well as professionals in public health, nursing, and social work.

Contents include:

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  What Is Patient Advocacy?

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  Understanding What Patients are Doing.

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  Family-Centered Care.

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  Improving Providers’ Ability to Communicate.

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  The Clinician’s Experience.

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  Accessing the Patient’s World.

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  Advocacy and Patient Literacy.

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  Improving the Quality of Care through Research.

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  The Contributions of Patient Advocacy in Patient Safety.

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  Grassroots Advocacy for Residents in Long Term Care.

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  Research Advocacy in Traditional Research Settings.

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  Educating for Advocacy in Settings of Higher Learning.

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  Clinical Advocacy.

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  Using the Law to Strengthen the Patient’s Voice.