Putting Patients First:
Patient and Family Centered Care
How Patient-Focused Care Can Be the Disruptive “Low Tech” Process
To Help Cure Our Healthcare Woes!
Currently, healthcare is a commodity and to a patient, there is very little differentiation between our approaches. All patients already expect the highest quality care, the best MDs and technology, etc. We have overshot patients’ expectations and needs! We need to develop simple, cheap and easy-to-use methods of delivery and re-engineered processes that focus on the needs of the patient.
Patient-Focused Care (PFC) embodies the concepts and principles that are the “low tech” disruptive processes that will change the way healthcare is delivered. As healthcare providers and organizations attempt to improve quality and patient safety, it has become apparent that many systems of care delivery have been organized to promote the convenience of those who deliver care rather than those who receive it.
PFC also focuses care on disease-specific medical conditions through a full cycle of care from patients’ perspectives. Therefore, we need to revamp old systems with re-engineered processes and structures so that patients are placed at the top of hospitals and physicians’ agendas. The redesign of systems requires that resources and personnel be organized around patients, rather than around various specialized departments. Therefore, we must reorganize treatment around patients' needs; decentralize routine activities to the point of care; cross train staff to minimize hand offs; have the right level of staff expertise matched to the right job; seek “low tech” solutions; simplify and streamline processes to eliminate unnecessary complexity; empower staff to support accountability at lower levels, and ideally, at the point of care; and foster teamwork beyond traditional departmental walls.
The singular goal of PFC is to provide the safest, most effective and most efficient care to patients. This will result in 100% patient and family satisfaction, eliminate most medical and surgical errors, develop a “team” approach that includes patients’ and families’ involvement in all of their healthcare decisions, and establish “global” customer service approaches. Re-engineering for PFC is the umbrella that can cover all of these issues and provide benefits for all constituencies, including patients and their families, healthcare providers, hospitals and insurers.
We can revolutionize the healthcare delivery system by focusing on our patients’ needs and viewing PFC as the low tech and easy-to-use process re-engineering that will help solve our current healthcare woes.
A Real World Example: PFC for Total Joint Replacement (TJR)
What have we learned about the recent “Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS)” total joint replacement craze? The MIS approach is not just about the surgical technique, but we have learned that it is really a comprehensive approach to the care of our patients needing total joint replacement. This new approach is a methodology and a mindset that results in a complete approach involving patient teaching/expectations, anesthesia/pain management protocols, operating room efficiencies, rapid rehab protocols, surgeon performance, training. . . and, yes, the surgical technique. All of these factors are necessary to realize the maximum benefits and clinical outcomes for patients. In many ways, this evolution resulted in the re-engineering of the entire care delivery cycle and not just the surgical technique – the first steps to PFC for TJR.
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