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Patient Education At Its Best: An Example From Griffin Hospital

A vital aspect of participatory medicine is helping patients learn how to participate. This week I saw a great example of someone who’s doing it right. Here’s the story, including the patient aid for download.

Griffin Hospital's CHF booklet (click to download)We hear a lot about “patient-centered”: patient-centered care, patient-centered thinking, everything. Frankly, a lot of it strikes me as patient-centered paternalism: people mean well, but patients sense that the thinking didn’t happen while standing in patients’ shoes, because the advice, policies, and publications just don’t hit home. It’s like somebody guessed what you want, instead of knowing (because they’re like you).

A couple of years ago I learned about Planetree, a terrific, small organization in Connecticut that’s been thinking from the patient’s point of view for thirty three years. (Yes, since 1978. Why are they not better known??)

This week I attended a live webcast at a “Planetree designated” hospital, Griffin Hospital, in Derby CT, produced by HealthLeaders Media. When somebody’s truly patient centered, you rarely hear a puzzled “Do people really need that?” or “Isn’t this good enough?”, because they start with what patients want. (See founders’ story at bottom.)

A great example is this booklet about CHF (congestive heart failure), which Griffin Hospital was kind enough to share. (Click the image to download the entire PDF, (1.7MB).) In my day job I did a bit of instructional development, so I can appreciate how well this was done: the “to-do” items are clearly presented, with NO extraneous explanation, and top-class use of icons and images. It’s all essential information, clearly presented, and nothing else. It’s what you need to do to succeed as a patient. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*

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