Patient Centered Care: Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions

1. Upon completion of the activities listed above, define in your own words the quality of patient centered care. The quality of patient centered care is the measurement of how well a healthcare team is keeping the patients’ needs as the main goal. A healthcare team that is displaying poor quality of patient centered care may have their own personal problems or goals prioritized above their patients. This can include their salary, their time management problems or lack of the ideal amount of time and workload and their own personal problems. A healthcare team that is displaying excellent quality of patient centered care may address the physical problems and concerns of the patient before other issues, while managing

The way the information is presented can greatly affect how the patient feels and how they process this information. It is important for the nurses and doctors to be there for the patients as much as they can, because they need help and information about their health. One patient mentioned that “the doctor was focusing on the tumors, but not the patient, and [he] could feel that” when he was receiving care (NASEM). Going along with the first issue, it is very important that the doctors have an open, yet professional, relationship with their patients. The patients need to understand that there is someone there who knows what they’re going through and that they can offer emotional support. Another patient wondered if her “health insurance was good enough to cover” her cancer costs (NASEM). The cost of oncology care is extremely expensive and the out-of-pocket costs are sometimes overlooked. Finding the money to pay for treatments is even more difficult for older patients who may not be working, may not have a spouse and may not have many family members that can/are willing to lend money. Neil Wenger, a primary care physician, said that “it becomes harder and hard to provide care to more and more patients that are getting cancer,” regarding the older and growing population of cancer patients (NASEM). While people may be healthier and longer living now, it also means there are more people that have a higher risk of getting diseases and illnesses. More patients with cancer means more time and money that needs to be spent, and it also means that a doctor may have too many patients that they can reasonably handle. Another healthcare professional claims that “it’s especially a challenge with older patients to coordinate care [because] they often will have four or five different specialists who” do not talk to each other. Communication