Why patient-centered care is important
Just like any other business, an important ingredient in a healthcare organization’s recipe for success is patient loyalty. Sara Heath wrote a piece on patient loyalty based on the insight of Thomas Lee, MD. Lee is the Chief Medical Officer of Press Ganey, a healthcare consulting firm.
Lee explains that instilling patient loyalty is a lot easier said than done. It is a very complicated process with lots of layers and obstacles. Fee-for-service reimbursement models act as a huge hurdle in front of achieving patient-centered care that builds the foundation for patient loyalty.
“The reimbursement system hasn’t rewarded loyalty per se. It hasn’t rewarded loyalty directly,” stated Lee. “The fee-for-service system instead directly rewards doing lots of care and procedures. You have got to do it well, you have to do it safely, you have to do it efficiently, but it just rewards activity as opposed to holding onto people and taking good care of them over time.”
Lee describes this fee-for-service system as “a distraction, at best.”
But in order to accomplish the sought-after patient loyalty, clinical organizations need to find out the different factors that make their patients come back for more.
A lot of experts say things such as less waiting time and convenient telehealth services like online scheduling tools satisfy patients. But Lee says patient loyalty runs deeper than that.
Patient loyalty will grow from compassionate care. Compassionate care is based on reliability- patients can rely on their healthcare to give them quality, safe care. Patients need to be assured they are in the right hands.
“The challenge that is being addressed directly is the need for cultural transformation into being a highly reliable organization, delivering care that is consistently safe, consistently compassionate, high quality and so on,” noted Lee.
One way this can be accomplished is by establishing provider motivation. Organization leaders need to help providers recognize what will help them be the best medical professional they can be. Leaders need to ask providers four key questions to help them identify the characteristics that will help them be a good clinician.
- What do you hope your patients think about their experience in your care?
- What can I do to ensure a patient walks away happy with their experience?
- What obstacles do I face while trying to give my patients a positive experience?
- Who on my care team helps me achieve a positive experience with my patient and do they share my desire to achieve a positive experience for my patient?
This is where the idea of provider loyalty comes into play. A medical professional who is not happy with their job will not help achieve patient loyalty.
“Physician autonomy is a good thing and it’s something that’s very important to preserve,” Lee said. “Every patient is different and there’s no quality measure that defines the right thing to do for every single patient. You need physicians to be people who are in the position to make the decision and empowered to say, ‘this isn’t the right thing to do for this patient.’”
All in all, healthcare organizations need to find a happy medium between the patients’, providers’, and business’ needs.
“We’ve got a happy overlap of goals between the true values of patients and clinicians and business values,” Lee explained. “Everyone wants patients to be loyal because their needs are being met. That also leads to caregivers feeling more pride and being more loyal as well.”