Part- 1 “Platinum Rule for Person-Centered Care” Person-centered care means putting the patient and their needs first. Many senior service providers talk about it. Let’s commit to taking the time to provide truly person-centered care. First, we will understand why person-centered care services are essential for nursing homes and how you can best implement them in a care facility to improve the quality of care. What is meant by “Person-centered Care”? Person-centered care focuses on the patient’s needs while paying attention to their abilities, environment, experiences, desires, and feelings. Healthcare providers who follow a patient-centered care approach provide a much more positive patient experience by including the patient and the family members in making medical choices. Person-centered care calls for healthcare providers to go above and beyond the patient’s illnesses and to make decisions with an empathetic lens and to respect patients’ values, rights, and preferences. To provide person-centered care, you must follow the Golden Rule: treat people as you wish to be treated. In fact, outstanding healthcare providers follow what might be called the “Platinum Rule:” treat people as THEY wish to be treated, even if it is NOT what you would wish for yourself. The Platinum Rule assures that as a provider you are asking what is in the best interest of the patient and their family at all times and truly listening for their needs.Person-centered services can be provided well only after you get to know the patients and residents because only after knowing them can one figure out what matters most to them. Geriatricians can collaborate with long-term care administrators to implement a person-centered approach in nursing homes.
Person-Centered Care in Nursing Homes and Geriatrics
In a person-centered care approach to geriatrics, providers focus on the patients’/residents’ quality of life instead of just diagnosis and treatments. For example, instead of just asking a patient with heart issues to cut off high sodium foods, a geriatrician would look at how this requirement will affect the patient’s emotional wellness. This means that if a patient’s favorite food is corned beef sandwiches and not being able to eat this anymore can drastically reduce his quality of life, then a geriatrician would let him eat it with maybe an extra dose of diuretics.Nursing homes that want to follow a person-centered approach can collaborate with geriatricians for patient-specific cases using Hucu.ai. Hucu.ai’s free HIPAA compliant messaging platform is built for the healthcare industry. It makes interprofessional collaboration in healthcare possible by bringing geriatricians and skilled nurses together to better care for their residents and patients.
Four C’s of Person-Centered Care
The most important elements of person-centered care can be recalled as the 4 C’s:Culture: in person-centered care, it is essential to take into account a patient’s values, culture, and lifestyle preferences. For example, nurses may have to engage with the patient in his native language or allow them to choose their daily outfits. The more patients feel that they have control over their care decisions like what time they want to eat or go to bed, the more they feel respected and empowered.
Care: person-centered care is more than just looking for treatment for an illness. When caring for a patient, his needs and wants have to be prioritized. It requires the healthcare staff members to understand what makes the patient unique and tailor their care according to those traits. For example, if a patient suffers from neuropathy, finding a skin cream with a pleasing scent can bring joy and relief to the patient.
Communication: Person-centered care calls for having regular communication with the patient. This can be in the form of quick meetings with the patients and updating them about how they’re doing. Feedback can also be obtained from the patient so that care can be improved. Communication is needed to allow patients to know about their treatment options so that they can make choices. Even when a patient has cognitive decline, offering very simple choices can be an excellent form of communication. For example: “Would you like to sit near the window or near the TV?”Hucu.ai is an all-in-one messaging platform that’s HIPAA compliant and built for healthcare. It can be a great tool to communicate with the patient and his/her loved ones everyday. Keeping them updated with the patient’s healthcare status can increase patient satisfaction.
Collaboration: person-centered care can only happen if healthcare professionals collaborate with the patient and his family. Recognizing the right to determine the type of care needed for a patient’s health is an essential part of the person-centered care approach. Healthcare professionals can have collaborative meetings with the patient and their families to make mutual decisions on the patient’s care treatments and next steps.
Benefits of Person-Centered Care
Person-centered care takes the focus away from a medical condition to focus on a patient’s preferences and experiences- thus making the patient feel empowered during the care process. Providing this level of agency improves patient interactions, reduces depression, and results in higher patient satisfaction. Moreover, person-centered care has been proven to change the culture of a facility/hospital which increases the well-being of the staff and patients.
More Patient Satisfaction – since person-centered care recognizes the patient’s desires, values, and preferences – it makes them feel more valued. With greater say in treatment plans, patients will be more willing to follow and accept the care they receive. By giving the patient control over their environment, schedule and daily activities, their quality of life also improves.
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Better Job Satisfaction Among Staff – when healthcare providers feel that their patients are happy with the care they are receiving, they feel they are making a difference in someone’s life for the better and will have a greater sense of pride in their job.
Better Healthcare Outcomes – Research by the AMA Journal of Ethics shows that practicing person-centered care can result in shorter recovery times, fewer ER visits, and less use of healthcare resources.For more examples of person-centered services and how to implement them in long-term facilities, check out part 2 of this article here.
