How can hospitals decrease patient medical charges while promoting patient autonomy? Switch to a patient-centered care approach.
The notion sounds simple enough, but it is not a practice implemented at all hospitals. With this type of patient-physician interaction hospitals can see readmissions drop, use in care services decline, and most importantly, more satisfied and pleased patients.
University of California researchers recently published a study in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine that physicians following a patient-centered practice style in the primary care setting can significantly reduce:
1. Annual number of visits for specialty care
2. The number of hospitalizations
3. Fewer lab and diagnostic tests
Not only that, total medical charges and specialty care clinics visits during the 1-year study were significantly reduced.
In order to achieve such dramatic results with something as simple as interaction style, researchers had physicians engage in an adapted version of the Davis Observation Code. This is basically an outline of topics that physicians were required to ask their patients. It consist of everything from small chat, counseling, and family history to preventive services, health education and patient questions. It builds a physician-patient rapport and facilitates communication so that by the end of the visit the patient knows everything to expect moving forward.
In better utilizing patient-centered care for your organization always involve families throughout the process. Among their other roles family members take care of the patient after discharge, provide assurance and to not involve them in the process wouldn’t make it patient-centered. Anthony M. DiGioia, MD, initiated Magee-Womens Hospital patient-centered plan and he sees family members as an opportunity to providing exceptional care. He involves family members in the education process of the patient's care experience, making sure family members know how to perform care at home in order to reduce anxiety post discharge.
Giving patients support and the ability to participate and collaborate with physicians in their care leads to better outcome, lower costs and greater patient satisfaction.
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