Moving beyond centeredness in patient experience

by Jason A. Wolf Last year I had the honor to co-author an article, Defining Patient Experience, for the inaugural issue of Patient Experience Journal, of which I also serve as editor. The exercise in conducting the research review and construction of the piece reinforced a fundamental shift I have seen occurring as we work to push the patient experience movement forward. That is, we are entering an era when the concept of centeredness, while critical and central, is no longer enough. In our article we identified "experience" to encompass personal interactions, organization culture and patient (and family) perceptions, and reinforced that it crosses the continuum of care to include not only clinical encounters, but also the edges and transition points that bind the system together. Woven into these framing concepts were three key ideas: Experience gets to the integrated nature of care, i.e. the fact that quality, safety, service, cost, accessibility and more, are all part of one experience from a patient, resident or family perspective. Positive experiences are grounded in the idea of partnership, which acknowledges the expanding vernacular of patient engagement and activation. Experience is built upon the ideals of person-centeredness; we must move our attention in healthcare from an institution-first mindset to understand the perspectives and engage the voices and values of those receiving or engaging in care, be they patients, residents or family/support n...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs