open access: Patient Experience, Outcomes, and Participatory Medicine | Journal of Participatory Medicine

Patient Experience, Outcomes, and Participatory Medicine | Journal of Participatory Medicine

In the January 17, 2013 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Manary and his colleagues argue that patient reports of their health care experiences actually reflect the quality of the care they receive.[1] This runs counter to the opinions of others who believe that patient reports merely reflect, for example, a measure of the providers’ bedside manner, the amenities that accompany the visit, or the providers’ marketing expertise.
Manary and his coauthors maintain that patient reported measures are strongly correlated with better outcomes and accurately assess adequacy of communication with doctors and nurses. They go on in their excellent perspective piece to comment about why there is inconsistency in reports of satisfaction/quality correlation. But, perhaps, these and other authors are missing a much more fundamental point: optimal outcomes are impossible without patient participation, especially feedback. It also begs the question of whether the purpose of the feedback is merely to assess quality or whether it is an essential component that shapes and defines the very nature of good health care.....

Reference
Manary MP, Boulding W, Staelin R, W. Glickman SW. The patient experience and health outcomes. N Engl J Med 2013; 368:201-203. Available at: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1211775.