Identifying potential outcomes of patient engagement in primary care quality improvement: a modified Delphi study.

Rationale: A barrier to dedicating resources towards patient engagement in primary care quality improvement is the lack of clearly identified outcomes that might result from these initiatives.

Aims and objectives: We sought to identify these potential outcomes at three healthcare levels as defined by the Institute of Medicine: 1) Micro/Direct Care; 2) Meso/Microsystem; and 3) Macro/Clinic/System using a Modified Delphi technique.

Method: Two focus groups of patients and primary care clinician leaders generated a first set of outcomes. These outcomes were then vetted and expanded through three web-based surveys sent to twelve national experts. Experts indicated the level of agreement with prior elicited outcomes and generated potential new outcomes.

Results: Included outcomes achieved at least 80% agreement. The final list of 46 consensus-derived outcomes was categorized across levels. 22 were at the Micro-level, 9 were at the Meso-level, and 15 were at the Macro-level.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest outcomes across all health system levels have the potential for progress when patients are engaged in primary care quality improvement initiatives. Future programs should consider validating and measuring these outcomes as part of their interventions.