Embrace complete digital transformation to deliver person and family-centered care

INTRODUCTION

Digital transformation ensures person-centered care

Healthcare has always been competitive but the stakes have never been higher. Completing digital transformation is the key to realizing the full potential of person-centered care.

Patient and family-centered care (PFCC) is defined by the AMA or  American Medical Association’s (AMA) Code of Medical Ethics across six sections covering the patient-provider relationship. According to the AMA, patient-centered care emphasizes:

• Respect for patient values in defining care decisions.
• Role of patients and families as advisors and partners in improving care practices.

Better patient experience and family-centered care is an emerging treatment modality closely connected to integrated and value-based approaches to healthcare. First, let us understand the concepts better.

Integrated care: Healthcare services integrating preventative healthcare, wellness, mental health, and other social services within community health settings.

Person-centered care: Integrated healthcare services delivered to satisfy individual needs, goals, values, and preferences in a system that empowers patients and providers to work together to manage care across community health settings.

Person and family-centered care: Integrated healthcare services delivered concerning family needs, goals, values, and preferences in a system that empowers patients and providers to work together to manage care across community health settings.

Value-based care models: A community health system where payments to healthcare providers are rendered according to the quality of care given to patients rather than the number of services offered. In a value-based healthcare system, doctors and providers are encouraged to emphasize person-centered care by addressing comprehensive long-term needs instead of acute health concerns.

MEANING

Ensure patient-centricity in digital transformation projects

Digital strategies that satisfy the patient-consumer’s needs facilitate individualized care. Person-centered care encourages people to take charge of their own health through digital services that focus on prevention. To scale this approach in healthcare, we need digital services, platforms, infrastructure, and standards to enable interoperability across care settings.

Patient-centric digital transformation is leveraging technologies to improve patient satisfaction and medical outcomes to provide patient centric care.

What is person-centered care?

Here are some of the elements that define person-centric care:

• Healthcare is provided keeping in mind patient values, goals, preferences, and needs.
• Success is measured according to the ability to improve health as per the patient’s treatment plan.
• Integrated care emphasizes knowledge and resource sharing across the community health nexus.
• A healthcare plan that is used to manage chronic and complex disease pathologies more effectively.
• Collaborative relationships between patients and providers are sustained through mutual respect and a shared approach to problem-solving.

Person-centered care needs modern digital interventions                                                                                          Source

 

What does person-centered care mean for patients?

Person-centered care empowers patient-consumers to make more informed decisions about their treatment needs and wellness desires. Instead of struggling to navigate a complex system, they are invested in their own well-being when they have easy access to a team of primary care providers, specialists, and support staff whom they go on to view as trusted allies.

Doctors and clinicians who employ this model work collaboratively with their patients to ensure they can do everything within their power to deliver the best possible outcomes.

What does person-centered care mean for providers?

Person-centered care drives providers to build collaborative relationships with their patients and other providers involved in care delivery. They have a much deeper understanding of individual patient needs through access to personal health information and technologies that deliver a clear snapshot of health.

Providers operating under person-centered care modalities are better equipped to respond with empathy, care, and respect for people from all backgrounds and walks of life.

ILLUSTRATION

What does person-centered care look like? 

Consider this scenario: Phil met with his primary care physician as he had trouble breathing. Following his care visit, Phil’s provider diagnosed him with asthma. In addition to prescribing a rescue inhaler, his doctor followed up with a telehealth visit to identify other contributing factors to Phil’s treatment plan.

In the course of the telehealth visit, Phil’s smoking habit came to light. His living environment was also likely to be negatively impacting his breathing. Together, Phil and his provider developed a treatment plan to help address his health, behavioral, and social needs.

Phil’s doctor helped him connect to community resources to help him quit smoking and set a plan for regular cleaning of his apartment. Instead of relying solely on medical interventions, Phil’s treatment plan was holistic and developed to take advantage of other resources in the community health setting.

Since Phil is invested in his treatment, he is much more likely to follow his doctor’s treatment recommendations to make meaningful lifestyle changes.