Abstract
Background/Aims As healthcare evolves to meet growing demand, it is crucial to maintain quality patient-centered care. In our quest to build a viable Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) in our ambulatory care setting, we conducted this study to assess our patients’ perspectives on patient-centeredness in our integrated healthcare system.
Methods Surveys were administered to all consenting English-speaking patients and accompanying relatives ages = 18 at 4 Family Medicine clinics. The questionnaire consisted primarily of Likert-type items with 5 choices ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree on relationships within healthcare, communication with providers, access to providers, and coordination of care, along with basic demographics.
Results Of 316 patients approached, 204 (64.6%) returned completed surveys. Mean age was 47.4 (SD = 16.0; range 18–89); 67% were female, 84.4% white, 11.8% black, and 12.8% Hispanic. Majority were married (57.0%), employed (60.2%), had college education (69.4%), and reported an annual income of <$60,000 (68.7%). The vast majority expressed believe that their healthcare team treats them with courtesy and respect (96.1%), trust their healthcare team with their medical care (93.6%), feel their healthcare provider communicates with them clearly using understandable language (95.6%) and listens to their questions, answering them directly (96%). Also the vast majority believe they play an active role in their healthcare (95.5%) and think it is important to be proactive in their healthcare (97%). Comparatively lower percentages of positive responses were noted when asked if the patient would like to use the Internet for filling prescriptions, making appointments, or communicating with their healthcare team (52%), if their provider inquires about their health goals (61.9%), and if their provider takes their health goals into account when developing a treatment plan (69.4%).
Conclusions In order to move towards a more PCMH, providers need to talk to patients about their health goals and incorporate them in developing a treatment plan. Since patients seem willing to take a proactive role in their healthcare and already trust their healthcare team, a PCMH model appears to be an attainable goal in our setting.
