Measuring Patients’ Perceptions of Patient-Centered Care: A Systematic Review of Tools for Family Medicine

Recently North American primary care health reforms have been focusing on the patient-centered medical home. This is an interesting systematic review by Hudson and colleagues which looks at available instruments to measure the “patient-centeredness” of health care that is delivered. They have found that there is no one tool to assess this.

At the heart of patient-centered care is the on-going relationship between the patient and the doctor. The review identified two instruments, the Patient Perception of Patient-Centeredness (PPCC) and the Consultation Care Measure (CCM), but both these are visit-based and hence episodic in focus. Care will only be truly patient-centered when patients understand about their condition and are able to engage in self-management. Both doctor and patient must comprehend what the other is communicating.

Hudon et al rightly identify that for patients with chronic diseases, what is important is the on-going care over time. One of the key components to determine is how much patients can understand their health issues and actively participate in managing their own health care. This review identifies a gap in our tools to measure this. The challenge is to design an instrument to achieve this end.

Competing interests:   None declared