Reports From the Field

Brief Action Planning to Facilitate Behavior Change and Support Patient Self-Management


 

References

BAP’s stepped-care design makes it easy to teach to all team members and as described above, team-based delivery of BAP functions well in those situations where clinicians and trained ancillary staff can “hand off” the process at any time to optimize the value to the patient while respecting inherent time constraints.

Documentation of the actual goal and follow-up is an important component to fully leverage BAP. Goals captured in a template generate actionable lists for action plan follow-up. Since EHRs vary considerably in their capacity to capture goals, teams adding BAP to their workflow will benefit from discussion of standardized documentation practices and forms.

Summary

Brief Action Planning is a self-management support technique that can be used in busy clinical settings to support patient self-management through patient-centered goal setting. Each step of BAP is based on principles grounded in evidence. Health care teams can learn BAP and integrate it into clinical delivery systems to support self-management for PCMH transformation.

Corresponding author: Damara Gutnick, MD, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, damaragutnick@gmail.com.

Financial disclosures: None.

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