Is it important to focus on organisational values and engaging stakeholders, including patients, when working to improve care quality and patient experience?

Introduction
This paper examines how organisational values and stakeholder engagement can improve patient quality, experience and care. The author will do this by exploring what stakeholder engagement is and how it is being used in the healthcare arena to improve care quality and patient experience. The author’s critical analysis will discuss the relationship between organisational values, stakeholder engagement and the delivery of quality patient care, before relating this to his professional practice, prior to drawing and presenting conclusions.

The author having worked in …show more content…

Stakeholder engagement techniques can take many forms. Examples of some initiatives used in the UK are:

• Service user forums
• Staff forums
• Healthcare action groups
• Volunteering
• Courses delivered by trained peers/former service users
• Innovative and easily interactive websites that allow the submission of patients views and opinions on services from various questionnaires, surveys and public consultations

Stakeholder engagement can also be considered to operate on a number of levels, this can depend on the level of which engagement occurs and when. Wilcox (1994) described the levels and hierarchy of engagement .

1. Information-giving, in which people are merely told what is planned
2. Consultation, in which people are offered some options and ideas, and organisers listen to feedback, but do not allow new ideas
3. Deciding together, in which organisers encourage additional options and ideas, and provide opportunities for joint decision-making
4. Acting together, not only to decide together on what is best, but also forming a partnership to carry it out
5. Supporting independent community interests, in which local groups or organisations are offered funds, advice or other support to develop their own agendas within guidelines .

Today, current policy supports the arguments and agenda for involving individuals in developing their local services and evaluation of these services. Numerous national