The Aligning Forces for Quality experience: lessons on getting consumers involved in health care improvements.

Aligning Forces for Quality is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's signature effort to improve the overall quality of health care in targeted communities, reduce racial and ethnic disparities in care, and provide models for national reform. Activities in each of the sixteen Aligning Forces for Quality alliance communities are guided by a multistakeholder alliance of consumers, providers, and payers. To achieve goals established at the national and local levels, the alliances integrate local consumers into governance and decision making, program design and implementation, and information dissemination efforts.

Early lessons from four 'aligning forces for quality' communities bolster the case for patient-centered care.

The practice of patient-centered care remains in its developmental stages-hampered, in part, by limited evidence of its effectiveness. In this article we first review available evidence on patient-centered care, such as the positive effects of engaging patients in quality improvement activities. We also point out the existence of a research gap that makes it difficult to quantify the effect of "culture change" in health care, and to attribute improvements specifically to patients' involvement.

Analysis & commentary. Measuring patient experience as a strategy for improving primary care.

Patients value the interpersonal aspects of their health care experiences. However, faced with multiple resource demands, primary care practices may question the value of collecting and acting upon survey data that measure patients' experiences of care. The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) suite of surveys and quality improvement tools supports the systematic collection of data on patient experience.