Shared Decision Making

Are you aware that National Quality Forum desires shared decision making be included as a standard of care?

 I tend to believe “rehabilitation services” would be included in many patient decision aids. Until we see more and more patients screaming for rehabilitative services, I think it is safe to assume that before we have the patient sitting in front of us, a decision to receive rehabilitation services has already been decided. In the event the rehabilitation team is screening patients to determine candidates for rehabilitative services, then a patient decision aid may be helpful to inform the patient.

Within the PDF shared in this news release, I appreciated the description of how shared decision making could be possible and why including the patient in conversations is important. 

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Patient decision aids prepare patients to make informed decisions that align with their values, goals, and preferences with their clinicians.

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The next question I have in my mind revolves around the interventions we provide. Let’s say that a patient is presenting to you due to experiencing low back pain. How formal do we get? Do we need to get into all the specific options that are possible when treating someone who is experiencing low back pain? 

Is it better to use the patient specific functional scale and FOTO’s patient friendly report to begin the discussion so that the patient immediately knows goals are heard and then discuss the treatment that will provide the desired outcome?

Until next time,

~Selena