Individual providers must take the lead in prioritizing patient-centered care, Susan Frampton, Ph.D., president of the Connecticut-based nonprofit advocacy and membership organization Planetree told Becker's Hospital Review.
Within the silo of patient-centered care, "there are a zillion things going on," Frampton said, and organizations' strategies for patient-centered care are often unsustainable in the long term.
To make such care a top priority, she said, providers should establish a patient-family partnership counsel to improve outreach to the patient population and their families. This outreach should involve patients and families in the care process, such as assessment of patient safety initiatives or feedback on interviewing and hiring decisions.
"Giving the patients that are served a seat at the table in terms of how the organization is run can be incredibly transformational," she said.
Similarly, WellSpan Medical Group has seen positive results by adding patients to its practices' quality improvement teams along with managers, nurses and clinicians.
Patient-centered care is especially important now that patient experience scores tie to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, Frampton said. That increased importance has led many medical schools to add it to their curricula, FierceHealthcare previously reported.
Another way to promote patient-centered care is through integrative medicine, which emphasizes the entire patient rather than separate aspects of his or her health, Susan Bradt, M.D., of the holistic medical practice Family to Family in Asheville, North Carolina, told Mountain Xpress. Although integrative medicine incorporates conventional treatments, its primary focus is wellness and preventive care rather than responding to symptoms one by one, she said.
To learn more:
- here's the Becker's interview
- read the Mountain Xpress interview