Participatory health professionals will collaborate with patients to ensure that they have the knowledge, skills and support to make informed decisions about their care as they work together to achieve the patients’ aims. Health professionals agree to:

1. Welcome, encourage, and value patients as informed and involved participants in their care to the extent they are willing and able to do so.
2. Listen to patients with respect and cultural sensitivity.
3. Ask patients what matters to them throughout the course of care.
4. Collaborate with patients to identify and monitor treatment and self-care goals.
5. Notify patients about treatment options and provide information about their benefits, risks, and costs — and will notify patients in advance of the professionals own fee schedule, when possible.
6. Provide patients a clear explanation and access to all information and data about their own health and health care.
7. Serve as a knowledgeable resource about the tools, communities, and databases patients can use to support participation in their care.
8. Work with patients using approaches that identify and minimize barriers to timely and effective action by patients.
9. Solicit feedback from patients.
10. Involve patients with central, meaningful roles in practice improvement efforts, such as quality improvement teams.  This might include involving patients in developing patient education materials and evaluating practice design, staff, and workflow.
11. Respect patients’ time.
12. Use technology as appropriate to facilitate meaningful participation.
13. Understand that patients spend most of their time outside the healthcare setting and outside of healthcare professionals’ control.
14. Ask patients whether they search for health information, from where, and how it affects their behaviors; respect these information-seeking behaviors.
15. Learn about online resources patients use for health.
16. Teach patients about online resources you have discovered or learned from other patients.

These behaviors may be supported by information management or structural functionalities including:

1. Email or other timely non-visit communication options for patients.
2. Electronic medical records.
3. After visit summaries.
4. Continuity of care communications.
5. Direct patient access to lab values, growth charts, immunization records, and other health data.
6. Evidence-based decision aids.
7. Ability to identify and target patients who would benefit from preventive care or tests.
8. Creating reminders for patients and providers.
9. Creating a patient advisory council.
10. Feedback surveys and suggestion boxes.
11. Open scheduling.
12. Extended hours.

———————————–
Current JoPM guidelines:
Health professionals collaborate with patients to ensure that they have the knowledge, skills and support to make informed decisions about their care as they work together to achieve the patients’ aims. Health professionals will:
1. Encourage patients to become informed and involved participants in their care to the extent they are willing and able to do so
2. Provide patients a clear explanation and all information and data about their own health and health care.
3. Serve as a knowledgeable resource about the tools, communities, and databases patients can use to support participation in their care.
4. Communicate with patients using approaches that minimize barriers to timely and effective action by patients.