Patient-Centered Care

Overview

The following highlights an example of patient-centered care. A patient presents with throbbing pain in his right leg in a hospital emergency department. The nurses and physicians deal with him gently, as they seek his medical history, and discern the source of his problem. This kind of calm, tender treatment of the ill and infirm is at the core of patient-centered care.

Although patient-centered care is starting to be recognized as an important aspect in healthcare, it has been slow to be fully embraced. National surveys conducted by the Commonwealth Fund found that about 1 in 5 adults has difficulty in communicating with his or her physician. And about 1 in 10 adults has been treated disrespectfully during a healthcare visit. There have also been reports of patients who receive conflicting information from their healthcare providers or of the results of medical tests and medical records not being available at the time of the patient's visit.

As a result of these shortcomings, patients are being asked to become active partners in their healthcare. Through a patient-centered health system, there would be increased patient-provider communication and greater availability of educational materials and tools to help patients make more informed decisions. A patient-centered health system would increase access to care and include timely appointments and off-hour services. The increased use of information technology would be essential to achieve this model.

A patient-centered health system would also include greater continuity of care among primary care and specialist physicians, post-hospitaldischarge follow-up, and disease management. Making sure that patients have a medical home is [Page 893]key to developing a patient-centered care model. Furthermore, providing patients with pertinent information on the quality of providers as well as regular feedback would contribute to an improved healthcare system.

According to a study in 2006, physicians say that they favor patient-centered care, but only 22% of physicians actually incorporate these standards into their daily practices. Some practices of patient-centered care, such as same-day appointments, have been integrated; however, other aspects related to care coordination, team-based care, and information systems have yet to be widely implemented. Some other key findings from this study were that physicians in group medical practices of 50 or more are more likely to adopt components of patient-centered care than solo practitioners and that, although 73% of primary-care physicians think that team-based care results in better care decisions, 33% think that the team process makes care cumbersome, and 21% think that it increases the likelihood of medical errors. Only 2% of primary-care physicians are paid for e-mail correspondence with patients. Additionally, 87% of primary-care physicians think that improved teamwork or communication among providers would be effective in improving the quality of patient care.

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