FINALLY we may be able to soon see the "light at the end of the tunnel" when patients are rightfully SERVED by their healthcare providers, and play the key role in their own care! A long process no doubt, but one that may be just over the horizon . . .
The New York Times recently talked about an article published in Health Affairs, May 19, 2009:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/health/04chen.htmlDr. Berwick, a Harvard pediatrician and president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass., is a leading authority on health care quality. Last month in a national health policy journal, Dr. Berwick published an article titled, “What ’Patient-Centered’ Should Mean: Confessions of an Extremist.”
In it, he writes that the United States will require health care systems that are radically different from most of the ones we have today if we are to deliver truly patient-centered care. These systems would transfer control from doctors to the patients themselves.
Some examples of this new model of care? Shared decision-making would be mandatory in all areas of care, with patient preference occasionally putting evidence-based care “in the back seat.” Patients and families would participate in the design of health care processes and services and would be a part of daily rounds. Medical records would belong not to clinicians but to patients, who would no longer have to get permission to look at them or call the doctor for lab results. Even the word “compliance” would become obsolete.
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/co ... 8.4.w555v1
Joy