Consumers: from perceptions to participation.

Abstract

As Winston Churchill once said, "Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I don't always like being taught." In behavioral health, consumers can make important contributions to the design and evaluation of programs and services. As demonstrated by this case study, progress can be made in incremental steps, over several years. Another reason for BABH's success was progression from very concrete projects to an ongoing organizational structure that consumers could identify as providing a role in policy and procedure development, program evaluation, strategic planning, and programmatic changes. Performance improvement professionals, through their contributions to the organizational design of committees and communication structures, are in ideal positions to promote the full participation of consumers across all healthcare settings. Just imagine what could be achieved in understanding how to design systems if current issues and recent research results were routinely explored--such as those by Harrington et al. regarding Medicare beneficiary complaints (2001) and Gines et al. (2001) on chronic care and satisfaction with managed care--with a consistent group of consumers. Consider adding consumer participation as a new exciting goal in the next edition of your performance improvement and strategic plans!