Patient-Centeredness: The Promise of Quality and a Pathway to Equity
One of the six components of quality health care identified by the Institute of Medicine is patient-centeredness. While there has been significant attention on the components of safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, there has been less attention on the components of equity and patient-centeredness.
I have begun to use patient-centeredness as a key concept to drive change and improvement in our health care systems, as well as a pathway to health equity. To me, patient-centeredness means providing the best care to all patients at all times, based on their individual, contextualized needs and preferences. It means customizing and tailoring health care and services for diverse individuals while expecting and achieving the same (highest) quality outcomes for everyone. If we can really transform our current health care systems into more patient-centered ones where patients really are more engaged as partners in their own health care and their own health, we are likely to see quality improvement, reduction of health care disparities, more engaged clinicians and health care providers, and patients and health care consumers with greatly improved experiences of health care.
Here are some key resources on patient-centeredness:
Institute of Medicine Workshop on Equality and Patient-Centeredness
Economic and Social Research Institute: Patient-Centered Care for Underserved Populations
Some key articles on the concept of patient-centeredness are:
Epstein RM, Fiscella K , Lesser CS Stange KC. “Why the nation needs a policy push on patient-centered health care.” Health Affairs (2010); 29(8):1489-1495
Bechtel C and Ness DL. “If you build it, will they come? Designing truly patient-centered health care.” Health Affairs (2010); 29(5):914-920
Berwick DM. “What ‘patient-centered’ should mean: Confessions of an extremist.” Health Affairs (2009); 28(4):w555-w565
Davis KA, et al. “A 2020 vision of patient-centered primary care,” J Gen Int Med (2005); 20 (10): 953-957
Ignatius Bau 
Mr. Bau.
Interesting article! I’m currently doing a bit of research on this and wonder if you have any more information concerning the practical implementation and measurement of patient-focused health care delivery, particularly from a performance assessment perspective. As you’re aware there’s a lot of literature concerning the importance and value of patient-centred care, but must less concerning how to measure it and what appropriate targets might be.
Regards,
Nas
LikeLike