Hospitals Form Patient Advisory Councils to Learn How They Can Improve Care

After a hospital stay, patients may just want to put the experience behind them. The last thing they want to do is come back.

Increasingly, though, they are doing just that—but at the request of the hospital, and in an effort to improve care. They are being recruited for patient and family advisory councils to work on projects and policies along with hospital staff, weighing in on matters ranging from the design of hospital rooms to improving communication with nurses, and even tagging along with doctors on their rounds.

As a hospital volunteer opportunity, advisory councils go far beyond the traditional role of handing out magazines and manning an information booth, and can require a significant time commitment. But former patients who have taken on the challenge say it helps them advocate for other patients and families in a way they could never do otherwise.

For hospitals, the councils are an integral part of a strategy known as patient and family engagement. Councils were rare in hospitals a decade ago, but a survey published in the journal BMJ Safety and Quality earlier this year found that about 38% of hospitals surveyed had the panels.