Patient and community engagement: the approach at university health network

In the past few years, all of us in healthcare have heard phrases such as "patient engagement," "community engagement," "stakeholder engagement," "patient feedback," "community involvement," "patients as partners in care," "patient centred care," "patient experience" and "patient involvement in healthcare." These phrases (and many more that have not been identified) speak to a process whereby those people who have a legitimate and meaningful relationship with the healthcare organization and its providers should be involved in a meaningful discourse and set of transactions with the organization and the providers. If involvement doesn't happen naturally, then there is a sense that some sort of definitive outreach should occur that will engage and enroll meaningful involvement in a variety of ways.