Patients, Providers Vary in Defining Value in Patient-Centered Care

Patient Engagement HIT recently reported that patients and providers are divided in what they view as “value” in healthcare, according to a recent report from the University of Utah Health.

A survey of 700 providers and 5,000 patients found that both patients and providers ranked quality as the No. 1 element of value, with 62 percent of patients and 88 percent of providers in agreement. Twenty-six percent of patients ranked cost as important and 12 percent ranked service as most important compared to seven percent of providers valuing service and five percent valuing cost. The top three “value statements” ranked by patients were:

    • My out-of-pocket cost is affordable (45 percent)
    • I’m able to schedule a timely appointment (39 percent)
    • I’m confident in the provider’s expertise (38 percent)

Providers gave higher rankings to statements, including understanding the patient, having confidence in treatment protocol and seeing wellness improvements. Patients varied in selecting different combinations of value statements than providers, reflecting how all patients are different.

“That means that every day, physicians are seeing patients who individually have very different priorities from one another and from the physician’s definition of high-value care,” according to researchers.

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