A four-year long consensus-driven process has resulted in the first ever European standard on patient participation in person-centred care. The standard can facilitate the introduction of, work with and research on person-centred care. Axel Wolf, Chair of the European committee for the standard, explains more in the below video blog.
About the standard
In 2016 The University of Gothenburg Centre for Person-centred Care GPCC initiated a European standardisation process with the aim of facilitating the implementation of, work with and research on person-centred care. The standard, entitled EN 17398:2020 Patient involvement in health care – Minimum requirements for person-centred care, is now available. It is the first in its field in Europe. It can be used in a number of different ways by health and care actors, patient organisations, researchers, businesses and others.
What the standard can be used for
The standard has many potential uses. In health, social and elderly care settings it can be used as a guideline or standard when implementing person-centred care; as an aid for planning, management, implementation and systematic evaluation of daily activities as well as in procurement and other processes. In research it can be used to ensure that patients are included. Patient and family/carer organisations can use it to ensure patient participation in designing, implemention and evaluation of quality indicators and improvement work at all operational and strategic levels within the healthcare settings.
Background
The work on the European standard commenced in the autumn of 2016 and ten active member countries took part during the entire process, including France, Norway, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Austria. Associate Professor Axel Wolf of the GPCC chaired the European technical committee. Each participating country had their own national committee, which consisted of experts who provided input, expert knowledge and took part in a discussion forum. The standard was accepted as all participating countries reached consensus, with no country voting against it, as required.
Links to the video blog, the standard and other information
Click here to access the video blog with Axel Wolf.
Click here to access the standard in the various European countries.
Click here to access the European Committee for Standardisation web page for this standard.