Friday 25 May 2012

What is Patient Centricity?

Many of us in the healthcare would have come across this term called as Patient Centricity. It means different to different people. One big multinational IT firm looks at it from a technology point of view where technology is weaved around this concept. Another view of patient centricity revolves around the concept of coordinated care. Yet another hospital chain takes this term as part of its core values, thereby elevating patient centricity from an action orientation to the level of a belief system.

But at the heart of all this discussion is the patient. She is the one who puts trust in our capabilities to cure her of her illness. She carries the belief that her well being is our business. She hopes that behind her back, all our actions and decisions are being taken to ensure her good care. Such is the relationship we enjoy with our patients. To me, patient centricity is a guiding light, a sense of direction, to design our healthcare organizations. The design could be of systems and processes, infrastructure, hierarchy, medical and IT technologies or any other thing that has the potential to participate in patient care.

It is true, such a vision is not an easy task to achieve because our organizations are always in a state of flux. Who says that we need to be there? But we must make every attempt to be there.

5 comments:

  1. Patient Centricity at a Fortis facility takes it as part of its core values, thereby elevating patient centricity from an action orientation to the level of a belief system, in which trust is the base upon which everything else is built.

    Interning at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute has made me realize how much seriously it is being followed here. Being a JCI and NABH accredited hospital, it follows the protocol of "I may help too" for all the things (even if remotely, but importantly related to the patient).

    As per this ideology any person from the FEHI fraternity offers any and every kind of possible help to a patient or at-least directs them to the right path.

    I honestly admire such a commitment of FEHI towards "Patient Centricity".

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    1. Thanks Tridip for creating the awareness about FEHI's initiatives.

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  2. Humor me but i am curious as to why you keep referring a patient as "she"?

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    1. There are 2 explanations to this:
      1. In the modern day, women represent the 'consumer' class as a powerful force. So it has become redundant to refer to the customer or consumer as 'he' because of the dominant position of women as buyers and consumers.
      2. For long, we've used 'he' and 'him' to refer to an unknown person in any discussion, verbal or written. It's time we remove this disparity by highlighting that the other gender exists!

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    2. A very interesting insight indeed which many of us overlook. I appreciate you for breaking-up such a stereotype.

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