28 hours ago · For instance, a patient’s desired outcome criteria are indicative of what patients want to occur in a best case scenario following an intervention [11, 13–16]. Therefore, desired criterion may or may not reflect a realistic treatment outcome depending on the condition being treated [13, 17]. >> Go To The Portal
Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are any reports coming directly from patients about how they function or feel in relation to a health condition and its therapy, without interpretation of the patient’s responses by a clinician or anyone else.
Improved patient outcomes go hand-in-hand with quality of care, operational efficiencies, patient satisfaction and positive relationships with insurers. Here’s how those factors play a role in ensuring that all patients receive better care. Did a patient have timely access to care?
Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are instruments that evaluate daily functioning and health outcomes from the patient's perspective. If developed using standardized procedures (FDA Guidance, 2009), they can be used as primary or secondary outcomes in clinical trials evaluating new medications and treatments.
For instance, a patient’s desired outcome criteria are indicative of what patients want to occur in a best case scenario following an intervention [11, 13–16]. Therefore, desired criterion may or may not reflect a realistic treatment outcome depending on the condition being treated [13, 17].
Hospitals around the world are under increasing pressure to improve outcomes – whether because they are operating in a fee-for-performance or value-based care environment, or simply because today’s increasingly informed patients are deliberately pursuing treatment at facilities with a reputation for superior care.
The results included a somewhat extreme example of a nurse who witnessed the onset of complications in an intensive care patient, but refused to contact the on-call physician due to being afraid of his temper. At least one observer believed that this delay contributed to the patient’s death.
An accurate and quick diagnosis is an essential aspect of improving patient outcomes. It is the foundation for proper treatment decisions. IT plays a significant and growing role in processing diagnosis-relevant patient information in a comprehensive and purposeful way. Modern diagnostic exams help increase diagnostic quality, thereby reducing downstream costs resulting from misdiagnoses.
Misdiagnosis can result in unnecessary treatment of non-existing conditions or proper treatments being provided too late (or not all).
According to Kaiser Health News, 2,597 of the 3,400 Medicare contract hospitals faced cuts totaling more than $500 million in fiscal year 2016 due to such readmissions. 17. The continuing trend toward managed care programs in the United States and other countries is also driving provider cooperation and alliances.
Providers are increasingly facing the operational and economic consequences of incorrect medical care. For instance, when lengths of stay are unnecessarily long, medications are sometimes used incorrectly, or avoidable exams and operations are performed.
The seamless flow of information along the treatment pathway is an essential component in the overall success of the treatment. Especially when it comes to hand-offs, there is often still room for improvement. It is key that hospital operators provide comprehensive, prioritized, and systematic information to subsequent treatment providers.
Improving patient outcomes means thinking beyond numbers on a chart. It means considering the bigger picture of what’s important to patients. Improving patients’ results has implications that extend to the community — and even to a hospital’s or practice’s bottom line.
Patient Satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is a key component of patient outcomes. When people discuss their level of satisfaction with their care among family and friends — or share their feelings through online platforms — it affects a provider’s reputation, for better or worse.
To help maintain high-quality care, coordinate treatment plans with a patient’s other providers. When discharging hospital patients, create clear summary reports that help all providers stay consistent in providing care.
Care is often poorly coordinated among clinicians within and across settings, and the increase in specialization further adds intricacy to the system because of the involvement of multiple doctors. When multiple doctors participate in the care of patients in a silo, accountability for patient care gets blurred.
Measuring and reporting outcomes is crucial for learning and improving care over time.
Hence, multidisciplinary collaboration and communication are fundamental for increasing the value provided to patients.
The aim of doctors (and veterinarians) is not only to save lives but also to improve the lives of patients. 26This means decreasing clinical signs such as pain, incontinence, or diarrhea or helping patients get up, lie down, and walk better after surgery.26, 27.
Improving the patient experience seems like a common sense approach to improving outcomes. If a patient feels good about her doctor and the care she’s receiving, then she’s more likely to comply with treatment recommendations. But a patient can have a positive experience and still end up with a negative outcome, such as a cancer diagnosis. Health systems should use patient satisfaction as a balance measure; not a driver for outcomes. Balance measures empower health systems to make significant quality of care improvements without losing sight of potential negative impacts
What the Research Reveals: Patient Experience Measures Are Indicators of Quality. Regulatory agencies believe the patient experience directly impacts quality of care (based on the fact that they require patient satisfaction reporting for reimbursement).
Many healthcare organizations have created the role of Chief Patient Experience Officer to enhance the patient experience, from facility design to employee training and engagement initiatives; they’ve realized the important connection between engaged, satisfied employees and happy patients.
A great patient experience comes from more than just the patient-clinician interaction; it’s influenced by everyone and everything within a health system, from the admitting clerk to a clean room—it’s influenced by the entire health system’s infrastructure.
Survey vendors need to keep pace with the changes in technology and healthcare delivery to capture the data needed to make meaningful, measurable improvements.
“Whether you think patient satisfaction surveys are good or bad ,” according to California-based family physician Leonard Fromer, MD, “the fact of the matter is that the marketplace you work in is demanding that data on patient satisfaction be used to empower consumers.” Fortunately, as a result of having been tested, validated, and refined for decades, most health systems see patient satisfaction surveys as meaningful ways to identify gaps, develop quality improvement initiatives, and act as balance measures to ensure changes in care delivery don’t negatively impact the patient experience. Patient satisfaction surveys are essential to the industry’s transition to value-based care.
Patients rely on outcomes data to make educated decisions about their healthcare. Quality reporting organizations, such as The LeapFrog Group, evaluate and report on U.S. hospital safety and quality performance. Patients want reassurance that they’re receiving the best care for the lowest cost.
Outcomes measurement should always tie back to the Quadruple Aim, so healthcare organizations aren’t just reporting numbers . Health systems shouldn’t become so obsessed with numbers that they forget their Quadruple Aim goal. Instead, they should focus on quality and improving the care experience at the most efficient cost.
Readmission is costly (and often preventable). In fact, researchers estimate that in one year, $ 25 to $45 billion is spent on avoidable complications and unnecessary hospital readmissions. After increasing efforts to reduce their hospital readmission rate, the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) saw a 14.5 percent relative reduction in their 30-day all-cause readmission rate, resulting in $1.9 million in cost avoidance. UTMB reduced their hospital readmission rate by implementing several care coordination programs and leveraging their analytics platform and advanced analytics applications to improve the accuracy and timeliness of data for informing decision making and monitoring performance.
The World Health Organization defines an outcome measure as a “change in the health of an individual, group of people, or population that is attributable to an intervention or series of interventions.”. Outcome measures (mortality, readmission, patient experience, etc.) are the quality and cost targets healthcare ...
Achieving outcomes is important, but the process by which health systems achieve outcomes is equally important. Process measures capture provider productivity and adherence to standards of recommended care.
Skin breakdown and hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are common safety of care outcome measures: Skin breakdown— happens when pressure decreases blood flow to the skin. A skin assessment tool can be used to reduce skin breakdown.
The healthcare industry is riddled with administrative and regulatory complexities that make it difficult for health systems to achieve the Triple–or better yet, the Quadruple–Aim of healthcare. The complexities found in outcomes improvement are particularly challenging, as health systems measure and report on hundreds of these outcomes annually.
A patient-reported outcome (PRO) refers to an assessment of a patient’s health condition that comes directly from the individual (see Chapter 6 for further discussion). PROs are increasingly recognized as an important aspect of clinical practice and clinical trials.
PROMs can be used for different purposes: as feedback for the patient self, for the clinician to identify which patient experiences improved or deteriorated health outcome over time, in clinical research, and as an indicator in healthcare systems for assessing the performance of hospitals and clinics.
Although well-developed condition-specific or individualised measures are likely to have enhanced clinical relevance than generic measures, providing information that is more actionable, appropriate education and training in the application and interpretation of PROMs is required.