Question

  Module 01 Discussion - Delivering Client Centered Care

Locate one peer reviewed evidence-based article that describes a "best practice" being used in delivering client centered care and promoting health. It can be for any client across the life span. Discuss the best practice and give two reasons why this practice is important and "best" and how it affects care and the promotion of health. Provide the reference for the article (use APA Editorial format).

Please make your initial post by midweek, and respond to at least two other student's post by the end of the week. Please check the Course Calendar for specific due dates.

Answer 1

Patient-centred care is an innovative approach to the planning, delivery, and evaluation of health care that is grounded in mutually beneficial partnerships among health care providers, patients, and families. Patient- and family-centered care applies to patients of all ages, and it may be practiced in any health care setting.

Patient-centered care in healthcare is defined as care provision that is consistent with the values, needs, and desires of patients and is achieved when clinicians involve patients in healthcare discussions and decisions. Goals of health care are patient safety and quality patient outcomes. Evidence based practice (EBP) is viewed as a tool to achieve these goals. Patient-centred care is health care that is respectful of, and responsive to, the preferences, needs and values of patients and consumers. The widely accepted dimensions of patientcentred care are respect, emotional support, physical comfort, information and communication, continuity and transition, care coordination, involvement of family and carers, and access to care. Surveys measuring patients’ experience of health care are typically based on these domains.

The Patient Centered Clinical Method identifies that patient-centeredness is achieved in part by understanding patients experiences with illness and disease as well as understanding patients holistically. Patient-centered care is thought to have many benefits and has been proposed as a means of achieving better health outcomes, greater patient satisfaction, and reduced health costs.

Research demonstrates that patient-centred care improves patient care experience and creates public value for services. When healthcare administrators, providers, patients and families work in partnership, the quality and safety of health care rise, costs decrease, and provider satisfaction increases and patient care experience improves. Patient-centred care can also positively affect business metrics such as finances, quality, safety, satisfaction and market share. Over the past two decades, patient-centred care has become internationally recognised as a dimension of the broader concept of high-quality health care.

The four levels that further define quality care and the role of patient-centred care in each level:

1. The experience level refers to an individual patient’s experience of their care. At this level, care should be provided in a manner that is respectful, that assures the candid sharing of useful information in an ongoing manner, and that supports and encourages the participation of patients and families.
2. The clinical micro-system level refers to the service, department or program level of care. At this level, patients and family advisers should participate in the overall design of the service, department or program; for example, as full members of quality improvement and redesign teams and participating in planning, implementing, and evaluating change.
3. The organisational level refers to the organisation as a whole. The organisational level overlaps with the clinical micro-system level, in that the organisation is made up of various services, departments and programs. At this level, patients and families should participate as full members of key organisational committees for subjects such as patient safety, facility design, quality improvement, patient or family education, ethics and research.
4. The environment level refers to the regulatory level of the health system. Here, the perspectives of patients and families can inform local, state, federal and international agency policy and program development. These agencies, along with accrediting and licensing bodies, are in a position to set expectations and develop reimbursement incentives to encourage and support the engagement of patients and families in healthcare decision making at all levels.

Reference:
A shared purpose framework to deliver person-centred, safe and effective care: organisational transformation using practice development methodology

Kim Manley*, Helen O’Keefe, Carrie Jackson, Julie Pearce and Sally Smith