Protocol for an improvement collaborative on patient-centred communication

Background The Primary Health Care Corporation manages a network of primary care centres across the state of Qatar, serving a diverse population. Post-Covid patient experience survey results indicate needs for improving patient-clinician communication. This project aims to address the gap through an Improvement Collaborative. Improvement collaboratives are structured approaches that bring together multiple teams to work on a common improvement goal. In primary care, such collaboratives have demonstrated evidenced impact on service delivery and quality improvement capacity building. Methods The collaborative protocol has three key phases. The Discovery Phase establishes a thorough understanding of stakeholder needs and baseline conditions, facilitates precise goal setting and selecting appropriate communication strategies. The Implementation Phase focuses on engaging leadership and ensuring team effectiveness, with continuous enhancements and regular networking and learning sessions guided by the collaborative organisers and an external expert. The learning sessions support real-time problem-solving and ongoing education for the teams. The Spread and Sustainability phase celebrates the successes and scales up effective interventions through strategies informed by actual experiences, leveraging empowered champions, and maintaining support within learning networks. Discussion The phased approach to this collaborative is shaped by comprehensive evaluation studies and systematic reviews on quality improvement collaboratives. It is intended to ensure that change interventions can be customized and will be adaptable. The approach aims to facilitated gradual and sustained improvements in communications practices across the primary care centers. Future plans include detailed assessments of long-term impacts and the potential for scaling these into other healthcare systems. Challenges such as teams engagement across the centres and maintaining long-term commitment are managed through ongoing monitoring and efforts to foster a strong community among participants in the collaborative. Conclusion A three-phase collaborative designed to foster stakeholder-driven, scalable improvements in patient-clinician communication through co-design, leadership, and continuous learning.