Patients, caregivers, family members and advocates have a critical role to play in high-quality medication use. They provide unique and valuable insights about what is important and meaningful in medication use quality, which supports the development of appropriate and useful quality measures, as well as related education, research and tools that support informed health care decisions and better medication use outcomes.

PQA supports person-centered care and is committed to engaging individuals and communities as partners in its work to improve safe, effective and appropriate medication use and address issues that impact a person’s ability to access and use medications. Importantly, our commitment is aligned with the CMS National Quality Strategy and the person-centered care principles that are part of CMS’ Meaningful Measures 2.0.

Beginning this year, PQA is expanding its engagement with patients, caregivers, family members and advocates. The PQA Patient Engagement in Quality Initiative will provide additional training, education and outreach for individuals and communities to become greater partners in quality.  

Our work will build on the foundation PQA has created through projects like the Patient Engagement Rubric, which we created in partnership with the National Health Council and the National Quality Forum. Additionally, our principles for diversity, equity and inclusion will guide us to ensure that we hear and respond to historically underrepresented voices. This is critical for addressing disparities and closing gaps in care quality.

We also will be informed by resources like the Person and Family Engagement Toolkit, developed for CMS by Rainmakers, as well as the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s Engagement Rubric. We are excited to take our work to the next level and leverage insights and guidance from our peers and partners across health care.

Our Objective

Our objective is to foster greater engagement and integration of patient, caregiver, family and advocate voices across medication use quality. This objective supports our goal to “deliver solutions for a person-centered and value-based healthcare system,” which is outlined in our strategic plan, Blueprint PQA 2025.

Our Strategies for Engaging Patients, Caregivers, Family Members and Advocates

Starting this year, PQA will:

• Provide training and support for meaningful participation in PQA’s work.
• Increase opportunities for engagement in PQA’s measure development, research, education and convening activities.
• Expand and deepen relationships with patients, caregivers, family members, advocates and the organizations that represent them.
• Educate patient communities on the importance of quality in medication use and the opportunities to contribute to quality and leverage quality measures and related tools.

Charles Rice shared his perspective as a kidney patient on PQA's November 2, 2023, panel on Patient and Caregiver Priorities for Medicare Part D MTM.