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Essay Patient Centeredness: Measurement Tools and Data Analysis

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Patient Centeredness: Measurement Tools and Data Analysis What is a patient centered care? People have subjective views what a quality, patient-focused care might be, but certainly it can be summarized into two main aspects of care affecting the healthcare challenge: the overuse and underuse of services. According to some estimates, thousands of Americans die annually because they were not provided proper care. These patients would often be treated for symptoms and not serious, underlying problems resulting in increase in medical costs and unnecessary testing. Like underuse, the overuse of services contributes up to 30% of the national healthcare costs in the United States. Both of these problems can lead to thousands of deaths. In …show more content…

The patient has a history of frequently visiting the emergency room (ER), changing primary care physicians, seeking new medications and inappropriately utilizing the local emergency management services (sometimes on a weekly basis). Typically, during the ER visits the patient would undergo numerous diagnostic testing. Majority of the time, the results do not show any serious conditions. She would be given new prescriptions that may serve the same purpose, and be just as effective, as the medicines she already has. How to Combat Underuse and Overuse of Healthcare Services? Ways to improve quality in patient care include, but are not limited to, active patient involvement in treatment, patient accountability, utilizing the medical technologies, conducting surveys, utilize prevention measures, and investment in patient education. Without proper patient education about their health conditions and various methods of treatment, the patients may decide not to follow doctor recommendations. Sometimes patients are diagnosed and simply prescribed medicines without being told what the home care regimen should be. Further, provider-patient relationship suffers if there is a gap in communication. Patients might receive detailed information about their treatment, but may fail to report symptoms that could impact the overall treatment approach. For example, physician

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