Determining the level of consumer involvement in healthcare

Health and consumerism is a partnership featured in many Western developed countries. Nearly a decade ago, the National Quality Taskforce and Advisory Council recommended the adoption of a consumer oriented approach as being fundamental to providing safer services, minimising preventable adverse health outcomes, whist also improving healthcare quality. In accordance with this recommendation, it is now commonplace for healthcare organisations to incorporate the consumer oriented philosophy into their mission statements. In addition, healthcare recipients tend to be referred to as consumers in preference to the traditional term patient. Despite organisational commitment for change and reports of consumer satisfaction with acute care services in Australia (AIHW 2000), the findings from the Bristol Inquiry (2001) and the King Edward Memorial Hospital Inquiry (2001) suggests that there is an absence of consensus as to the impact of these initiatives on the delivery or quality of frontline healthcare. This study aims to determine indicators of consumer participation in the planning and delivery of healthcare in an Australian context. The practice of consumer participation at the individual level of frontline healthcare is examined specifically for indicators of active participation in both decision making and information sharing. This study is complimentary to Phase Two of a Commonwealth funded project designed to explore clinical teams and the organisation of care related to the clinical condition, elective caesarean section. The study’s participants have been determined by the Commonwealth project, with the study’s samples being drawn from the recipients and providers of elective caesarean section healthcare, in three Queensland public hospitals over a three month time frame. A multi-method approach is utilised to navigate the complex social and professional constructs that impact on the organisation and recording of elective caesarean section healthcare. Triangulation