Why patient centered care matters

At Carrum Health, we’re on a mission to ensure employers and their people can understand and access healthcare that puts the patient first (and pocketbooks second). After all, if you’re seeking care for a current health concern or trying to prevent a future problem, shouldn’t you feel like a priority? It seems like a no-brainer to us.

Patient centered care is one of the six components of healthcare quality. It’s defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) as…

“providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.”

We imagine a future in which that’s the kind of care everyone gets, which is why we’re so passionate about moving away from the fee-for-service model and toward value-based care.

Now that you understand our dedication to patient centered care, let’s get into more specifics.

A brief history of patient centered care

Our goal to bring patient centered care into the mainstream requires a larger evolution from the physician-centered model, which has historically been the measuring stick for the industry. According to Health Affairs, physician-centered care is judged based on a provider’s tools or standards rather than a patient’s outcome or experiences—and those tools and standards rarely (if ever) reflect how a patient feels during or after care.

Enter patient centered care, a framework that uses patient surveys to determine the success of care. Because, after all, a patient will always be the best judge of how centered they feel in the medical system. Advancements in technology in recent years have enabled providers and medical systems to more efficiently distribute and interpret these surveys to patients after office visits and discharges from inpatient stays.

Core Principles of patient centered care

Patient centered care operates around a set of core principles. Here’s a little detail on each one:

• The mission and values of the provider are aligned with patient goals: Providers create treatment plans based on what their patients want to achieve, understanding that each individual has different needs and preferences.

• Care is collaborative, coordinated, and accessible: Providers make a point of communicating openly with patients about their treatment options, creating space to answer questions and discuss the possibilities. Throughout this process, all accessibility needs—such as translation services—are addressed.

• Physical comfort and emotional well-being are both prioritized: Patient centered care is about more than solving health problems. That is the ultimate goal, of course, but this model also prioritizes comfort along the way. When patients share their concerns and fears, those worries are treated with respect.

• The preferences of the patient and their family are valued in all decision-making: Physicians are careful to listen to and address input from the patient and their loved ones before making decisions about the patient’s treatment—and they never move forward with treatment without consent. Whenever possible, a patient’s loved ones are invited to be part of conversations and interactions with a care team.

• Information is shared transparently and timely: Patients don’t need to make multiple calls to get test results or to secure the educational resources promised to them. Instead, they are given the tools to access information about their health efficiently and honestly via direct contact with a provider or a patient portal, for example.

• Continuity of care and smooth transitions: A patient’s experience is not negatively impacted by shift changes during a hospital stay, a practice hiring new providers, or when they progress from one stage of care to the next. They can expect the same approach to high-quality care every step of the way.

Benefits of patient centered care

Patient centered care sounds great—and it is. It has some major benefits, including:

• Improved patient satisfaction and experience: Hospitals and practitioners that encourage open communication with patients, seek their feedback on an ongoing basis, and continuously prioritize the patient’s comfort and thoughts simply deliver better care. As a result, the patient experience is bound to improve.

• Better health outcomes and quality of care: Providers who focus on patient centered care report lower ER visit rates and improved overall outcomes.

• Enhanced patient engagement and adherence to treatment: As a result of being more satisfied with their care experience, patients are more likely to become (and remain) more engaged with their care and follow their treatment plans.

• Reduction in healthcare costs through more efficient care delivery: When patients don’t require additional ER visits, specialist appointments, tests, or hospital stays because they’ve received patient centered care from the start, costs go down for everyone.

How Carrum Prioritizes patient centered care

We’ve seen these benefits at work—and we know what a difference they can make to people navigating all kinds of health journeys. As a result, we’ve made our work entirely patient-centered. In addition to pairing each member with an empathetic care navigator who provides 24/7 white-glove support, we also partner with centers of excellence (COEs) who share our commitment to providing patients with the highest quality, most appropriate care (rather than focusing on increasing the volume of cases).

We have the numbers to prove it, too: our program has redirected 30% of members originally recommended surgery to less invasive treatments. We’ve also reduced hospital readmissions by approximately 80% compared to the national average. And, the average NPS (net promoter score) among Carrum members is 85, with members at this Carrum customer reporting an average NPS of 91. We’re proud to have been part of these changes in healthcare—and we intend to keep it going by keeping patient centered care at the forefront of our work.

The patient centered care we connect our members with is little to no cost for members and more cost-effective for our employer customers. We understand healthcare is pricey, so managing the expense without cutting corners on quality is vital.

Patients deserve to be at the center of the healthcare system—and we’re committed to providing patient centered care to as many people around the country as we can.

The information contained on this page is for informational purposes only. No material is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.