Making Decisions: Current Care Planning
Identifying Your Health Priorities and the Care You Want to Receive
The more you and your health care team know about What Matters most to you, the better you can work together to make treatment decisions – the range of care choices that could be offered –that meet needs while honoring Veteran priorities. Patient Priorities Care helps patients and health care providers focus all decision-making and health care on What Matters most: patients’ own health priorities.
This type of care can work well for people who must manage multiple conditions, multiple medications and spend a lot of time seeing lots of health care professionals. Often, all that care for all those conditions can make the care these Veterans receive feel burdensome, and it may not address What Matters most to them.
Patient Priorities Care recognizes that, when faced with tradeoffs, people differ in their own health outcome goals – what they want to achieve from their care, and in their care preferences – what they are willing and able to do to achieve their goals.
The Patient Priorities Care approach is meant to be a collaboration between Veterans, their caregivers and their VA clinicians. These resources can help you identify your priorities, talk with your VA providers and loved ones about them and make decisions together about getting the most benefit from your health care.
- Self-directed guide for Veterans and caregivers to identify their health priorities - Guides Veterans and their caregivers through an online process to identify their health priorities, including What Matters, health outcome goals and care preferences. The Patient Priorities website also includes a useful glossary with definitions of terms.
- Patient summary of health priorities – Provides Veterans and their families with a one-page summary of their health priorities, including The One Thing in their care or treatment a Veteran most wants to focus on so they can do more of What Matters. Completing the self-directed guide at MyHealthPriorities.org will create a summary like this that can be printed and shared with your care team at your next appointment
- What Matters Most questionnaire – like the online self-directed guide, this questionnaire acts like a “first conversation” to help Veterans and their caregivers rate and prioritize What Matters most to them
- Tips for Talking with your Health Care Team about What Matters Most – Offers tips for Veterans and families on talking about priorities and concerns
- Patient Priorities Care Overview Flyer – Explains how PPC works and the importance of health priorities for Veterans and their health care teams to choose the best care and treatment options for that unique Veteran
- Veteran Decision Aid for Care at Home or in the Community - Helps veterans think about what matters most when considering long term care choices
- Caregiver Self Assessment - Helps caregivers review their roles and responsibilities and evaluate their stress
Clinical Decision Making for Older Adults with Multiple Chronic Conditions
Patient Priorities Care https://patientprioritiescare.org is an approach to health care that aligns care with what matters most to patients.
