Patient Advisory Boards Engage Patients in Their Own Care

Roberta Mikles, RN, director of Advocates4SafeCare, serves as a member of the patient advisory board at Sharp Memorial Hospital (SMH) in San Diego, CA. Mikles is a retired nurse who has devoted most of her time to patient advocacy and was approached by SMH to serve on its patient advisory committee in April because of a past experience she had at the facility during which her father acquired MRSA. Another good way to find valuable members to serve on an advisory board, Leonhardt says, is to reach out to patients or family members of patients who have brought forth concerns to the facility related to patient care. It's often those people who want to do what they can to make sure an error they have suffered does not occur to another patient.

Next, Leonhardt recommends conducting one-on-one interviews with potential advisory board members. It's important that potential members have specific skills, like the ability to communicate well, collaborate, knowledge of the topic/issue at hand, is from a certain demographic etc.

For more insight into how to form your own patient advisory committee, see the October issue of Briefings on Patient Safety.