New Booklet Advises Taking an Active Role in Health Care Decisions

February is National Wise Health Consumer Month.  To support this, the Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has produced a new booklet with practical tips on what people can do to improve their quality of health care services, including how to avoid medical errors. This booklet-- "Improving Health Care Quality: A Guide for Patients and Families"-- focuses on the key health care choices people typically make and stresses taking an active role in all of the decisions about healthcare.

Research has shown that people who are more actively involved in their health care get better results and feel more satisfied. According to the AHRQ, there are some things that you should do to get more involved:

1. Work together with your doctor, nurse, and any other health care providers to make healthcare decisions.
2. Ask questions, and keep asking them until you understand the answers.
3. Tell your doctor about all of the medicines you take.
4. Don't assume that "no news is good news" when you have an x-ray or laboratory test. Ask the doctor or nurse when and how they will receive the results -- and how they will deliver them to you.
5. If surgery is needed, be sure that you, your primary care doctor, and surgeon all agree on what will be done.
6. Know that "more is not always better." Be sure to find out why a test or treatment is necessary, and how it can help.
7. When making health care choices, find and use information about quality measures.

This new publication is based on research about the information people want and need when deciding about their care. The material in the booklet is presented in an easy-to-read style, and it also describes other resources available on quality of care. Copies are available free of charge by calling the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse at 1-800-358-9295 (410-381-3150 for international calls), or by writing to AHRQ Clearinghouse, P.O. Box 8547, Silver Spring, MD, 20907. In addition, this guide can also be found on the AHRQ Web site.

Created: 2/26/2001  -  Donnica Moore, M.D.