Are we ready to deliver person centred care?
“Patient centred care is about treating a person receiving healthcare with dignity and respect and involving them in all decisions (my emphasis) about their health.”
“Patient-centred care is about how healthcare services create and support policies to put healthcare users, not healthcare organisations, at the centre of care.”
Victoria’s Health and Human Services
“Integration of Care places people at the centre of care and enables individuals to access care when and where they need it.”
The NSW Health Strategic Framework for Integration of Care
“Partnerships with consumers exist when consumers are treated with dignity and respect, information is shared with them, and their participation and collaboration is encouraged.”
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare
We talk a lot now about person centred care. And increasingly we are designing programs that feature partnerships, collaboration, shared decision making and (dare we say) power sharing between practitioners and consumers. But how prepared are we for this transformation in service delivery?
In 2017 we surveyed clinicians and consumers attending a Shared Decision Making Masterclass at the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation. We were exploring the barriers to the uptake of Shared Decision Making in NSW. We published the results here: http://www.publish.csiro.au/AH/AH18138
Our paper concluded that our efforts should focus on workforce skills development, motivation, communication and marketing, service provision and creating receptive work environments.
My core takeaway from the results is that there is a LOT to do. Despite the regular commitment to the reorientation of our services to a person centric model – we do not have sufficient numbers of either practitioners or consumers who are adequately equipped to “co-produce” effective health care in this manner.
If we are going to make a real difference we need to acknowledge that we are only at the start of our transformation journey. If you are interested in tools and resources that can help you to deliver more person centred care check out these guides and resources:
https://www.aci.health.nsw.gov.au/resources/chronic-care/consumer-enablement/guide
https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/our-work/patient-and-consumer-centred-care/