Patients’ experiences with their primary care provider involving them in care decisions | Health Quality Alberta Focus

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Patients’ experiences with their primary care provider involving them in care decisions

How patients rated the way their primary care provider involved them in decisions about their care at their most recent visit. (See data definition).

*Data courtesy of Health Quality Alberta Primary Care Patient Experience Survey.

What do you think?

  • How important is being involved in decisions about your own care?
  • When speaking with your primary care provider about your care options, what would you expect to experience?

Understanding “felt involved in decisions about my care”

In surveys conducted between October 2018 and March 2023, Health Quality Alberta asked patients who recently visited their primary care provider:

  • How would you rate the way your care provider involved you in decisions about your care in your most recent visit?

Patients could choose “excellent / very good / good / fair / poor”.

Patient experience is likely better if the care provider invites patients to provide input into care decisions. A primary care provider ideally balances the patients’ right to make decisions about their own care with his or her medical knowledge and expertise about what they believe is best. If patients feel involved in their care and empowered, they are more likely to take action to improve their care.

Considerations when viewing the results

As primary care providers work to develop a better understanding of how they could improve this rating, other questions can be asked, such as:

  • How do patients want to be involved in their care? This may differ based on the decisions that need to be made or the life context of the patient.
  • What is important to the patient regarding their care?
  • How is decision making shared with the patient? Does the patient feel ownership over the decisions made?

For information about Health Quality Alberta’s patient experience surveys offered to individual clinics in Alberta, please visit Health Quality Alberta’s website.

Available resources

HealthChange Methodology workshops held by Alberta Health Services offers doctors and teams tools to effectively involve patients in shared decision making.  To learn more about the workshops, visit: AHS Provider Education