title: The pursuit of genuine partnerships with patients and family members: the challenge and opportunity for executive leaders.
abstract: Empowering patients to control their own healthcare experiences, sharing decisions with patients and family members, being open and transparent, and anticipating patient needs create fresh partnerships between healthcare professionals and patients. The "new rules" the Institute of Medicine (IOM) defined in its 2001 report Crossing the Quality Chasm provide guidance for leading a cultural transformation in which clinic and hospital staff truly partner with patients and their family members. The resulting experiences inspire patients to say, "They give me exactly the care I want and need, exactly where and how I want and need it" (Berwick 2009). Improved health outcomes and patients who control their own hospital stays are simple concepts that are difficult to execute. Some may view these new relationships as disruptive to clinical decision making; others may see no need to change the way they've always done things. Executives are called to lead a cultural transformation--that is, to shape the views, perspectives, and behaviors of the individuals throughout their organization to achieve patient- and family-centered care. This article uses Kouzes and Posner's (2007) leadership framework to outline how executive leaders might embrace this challenge and accomplish profound change. We support this idea with examples from our practice at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rutherford
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006740:Hospital Administrators; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D015279:Organizational Culture; D011368:Professional-Family Relations