Patient Centered Care

The Patient experience is one of the top priorities for healthcare providers and hospitals today. While more emphasis is being put on the patient experience and patient satisfaction, many organizations are struggling to understand what patient-centered care truly means and how it is operationalized in the care setting. A growing demand among patients for an enhanced service experience because of increased visibility of provider and hospital ratings and greater participation in their health care, is placing more pressure on health care systems to find ways to become more patient centered.

I recently took my 87 year old Mother to see her doctor and we experienced over an hour of wait time. There was chatter among the patients in the waiting area; they have all experienced these long wait times, yet agree that the doctor is very thorough and spends the time necessary with each patient. This begs the question, what is true patient-centered care? Seeing patients in a timely fashion or exceeding appointment visit times in order to carefully treat the patient? Perhaps configuring the schedule to allow for longer patient visits would help alleviate long wait times.

There are many aspects that contribute to the patient experience. Research shows that higher patient experience scores are associated with higher hospital profitability. Payers are putting emphasis on patient experience as part of care quality. Hospitals and health systems must evolve to embrace a culture that focuses on the patients. Respect, partnership, shared decision making, and efficiency are values that healthcare providers can focus on in order to become a patient centered organization.

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Reference: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20170530/sponsored/170539998