Improving the Patient Experience Through Patient-Centered Care

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Patient Centered Care isn’t just taking good care of our patients. It is a holistic philosophy of including the patient and their family members in as many decisions and system/facility improvements as possible. It means offering choices whenever possible, thereby giving our elders more control over their lives.

This approach may include asking for their input on anything from what kind of furniture they would like to replace the old furniture in the front lobby, to what we should ask them on a discharge survey, to simply when they would like to go to bed at night. We are still in our infancy with implementing this philosophy, but here is what we have accomplished thus far:

Long-Term Care Residents

  • We invited six LTC residents to help plan our Nursing Home week in May. They offered suggestions and picked the theme for each day, the activity and the special food to be served.
  • We have added an “Activities Calendar Planning” day to our Activities calendar and have begun including LTC residents with the planning of their monthly events.
  • We have included LTC residents on our Dining Experience Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) to get their feedback on what they feel would improve their dining experience.

Rehab Patients

  • We created a PIP for the first 24 to 48 hours, as this has been an area where we either shine or fail to impress.
  • We invited a prior patient and his spouse to meet with us and get their feedback on their experience and collaborated on which areas we needed to improve.
  • Therapy is offering a choice to new patients of what time they would like to be evaluated (before lunch or after lunch).
  • Therapy is also asking each new eval if they would like to make a friend while rehabilitating. We then introduce them to another patient who also expresses an interest in meeting someone.

Through our patient-centered approach, we are able to improve the quality of life for residents and ensure they feel not only well-cared for, but also valued and significant.

By Park Manor Rehabilitation Center, Walla Walla, WA