Decision Worksheets can help make shared decision making conversations easier. They are designed to be used during the visit and provide a template for clinicians and patients to discuss options, key benefits and harms, and decide together on a plan for management.

For providers affiliated with the Partners HealthCare System, these tools are available for download on PCOI, from our intranet under “visit tools”. The Decision Worksheets are also available for download here:

• Depression
• Diabetes
• High Blood Pressure
• High Cholesterol
• Acute Low Back Pain
• Sedation for Port Placement
• Colorectal Cancer Screening (COVID-19)
• Colorectal Cancer Screening (COVID-19) (Spanish)
• Colorectal Cancer Screening in Older Adults
• Colorectal Cancer Screening in Older Adults (Spanish)
• Lung Cancer Testing

Using Decision Worksheets

The worksheets are not intended to be used as a stand-alone decision aid, or to be a comprehensive set of information. Rather, they are best used during the consultation to guide discussion and elicit patient preferences, values, and concerns.

For more detailed instructions, please view our Guide to Using Decision Worksheets.

We also have videos illustrating visits with and without a worksheet. The first video shows a “typical visit” about starting a statin for high cholesterol. The other is a visit on the same topic using a Decision Worksheet as a guide.

• Visit without Decision Worksheet
• Visit with High Cholesterol Decision Worksheet

If you’d like to make your own decision worksheet, please see our Designing a Decision Aid Workshop.

If you have used these Decision Worksheets with your patients, we’d like to hear your feedback.