How Do I Get Started On My Journey to Patient-Centred Care?

So you have an understanding of what a patient-centred care approach looks like and you are keen to make a change in your own practice. But where do you start?

What’s Involved in Moving to a Patient-Centred Care Approach?

When patient-experience innovation is deeply embedded in an organisation’s DNA, the shift is profound, moving from a traditional medical consultation model that delivers fragmented services – the starting point for most organisations today – to an optimal approach in which essential business functions, processes and care models contribute to innovation and evolution of a sustainable patient-partnership model.

Your Evolution to a Patient-Partnership Healthcare Organisation

Through years of experience partnering with a range of clients to transform their patient experience, Experience 360 have been able to identify distinct patterns (or phases) healthcare organisations move through on their road to adopting a value-based, patient-partnership approach.

Phase 1:

PATERNAL

A one-way relationship
where the patient and
their family is a passive
participant and the
healthcare professional is
the authority that ‘knows
best’ and directs the
healthcare decisions. The
patient is not involved in
the communication
between healthcare
providers.

Healthcare
Professional
drives care

Phase 2:

PARTICIPATING

The patient is recognised as having vital knowledge of living with a disease or condition that can be important to consider in the care process. Patients and their families are more involved in communication and feel more empowered to express opinions, share information and make decisions around their own care to help improve their own health outcomes.

Healthcare
Professional &
Patient
collaborate on care

Phase 3:

PARTNERSHIP

In a true patient partnership model, the patient is considered a full member of the care team and their knowledge and decisions are valued and respected throughout the care process. All members of the care team – including the patient, their family or carers and all involved healthcare professionals – work and communicate together to achieve the agreed health outcome.

Patient-driven
health
partnership

Phase 1 - PATERNAL

A necessary shift in healthcare is to eliminate care based on a paternal consultation model – where authority knows best and directs healthcare decisions on behalf of patients and their families – and evolve to recognise that the patient has valuable knowledge, which is very important in the care process.

Phase 2 - PARTICIPATING

The “Participating” phase is a cultural and behavioural shift from patients being passive participants who are paternally directed (one-directional) to recognise that the patient has acquired a vital variable knowledge for real life with a disease. The organisation reorientates its focus and transforming the patient experience becomes central to growth and improvement efforts.

Phase 3 - PARTNERSHIP

Phase 3 is likely to be the most challenging aspect of the change, as it provokes a shift in the medical profession itself and involves a dramatic shift in the way healthcare professionals’ practice. It focuses on improving the population’s capacity to take care of themselves to deepen and broaden every aspect related to the wellbeing of patients, staff and community.