Engaging patients and families to transform heart failure care

For patients with advanced heart failure involvement as a member of the healthcare team is critical to safe, high-quality and goal-directed care. While recognized as an important aspect of care, patient engagement is not yet a standard practice. This presents an opportunity for professional education and development in team-based care. This short report describes the development of a Community and Patient Advisory Team (CPAT) formed to support patient involvement in interprofessional collaborative practice. The CPAT, composed of patient and family advisors, researchers, care team members, and grant operations staff, served as a core team within the structure of a project to shape a new vision of care delivery. This was accomplished through participation in quarterly leadership workshops and facilitation of team training focused on patient-provider communication strategies to improve patient safety. The advisory team led the co-development of patient materials to support patient engagement during the new implementation of structured interprofessional bedside rounds. Involving community members as partners helped shape our work to more effectively and directly address gaps in current patient care.