Summary: When you ask patients for feedback on care, you may not always like what you hear. Nonetheless, HealthPartners includes patients in program design sessions, and its patient advisory councils have more candidates than the organization can currently use. Beth Waterman, HealthPartners vice president of primary care and clinic operations, describes how patients and others were selected to participate in the two-day rapid design session in 2002 that developed the award-winning prepared practice team model. The prepared practice teams have since been carefully duplicated at more than 20 HealthPartners clinics. A Care Model Process oversight team sends quarterly program updates to all practice teams to ensure the structure and consistency that are program hallmarks. Waterman will describe the role of practice teams in her organization during a September 19, 2007 audio conference, Building Patient Care Continuity with Prepared Practice Teams.
