[Patient involvement during crises]

Patient involvement is an important topic in health care. Client councils are one way through which patients are involved in decision-making. However, we know little about their role during crises, and what we can learn from these experiences. We argue that there was little patient involvement in the top-down and centralized decision-making during the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, many decisions were taken in interorganizational networks, where patient involvement is rare. Based on these findings, we argue that health care organizations and client councils should rethink what effective patient involvement looks like during crises and in interorganizational networks.