Everyone wants patients to receive consistent, reliable, high-quality care, and most health workers think that this means providing patient-centred care with compassion. So why does it not feel like that for so many patients in our hospitals today? Must they trade in low-tech human values for high-tech, effective treatment? Surely not – but too many recent public reports and inquiries have highlighted the problem for it to be a few chance encounters. This paper draws on objective data and patients’ stories; it is honest, and, yes, we have a problem; but it is also timely and welcome because it offers some explanations rather than excuses or soul-searching, and suggests a collective way forward.
Its focus is on hospitals, but the principles are general. Patients and their carers value continuity of care, which they judge by how it seems to them. Co-ordination among ourselves makes that experience more likely. If we do this successfully, then clinical outcomes and safety improve. This paper presents research evidence to support this, but it then goes on to describe the many trends in modern health care and hospital organisation that seriously challenge our ability to be successful. Of course, at the point of care, it is about individuals; but in a complex situation, careful attention – to the micro- and macroprocesses as well as to the prevailing hospital culture – is required to make it more likely that the right things are done and that it feels right to the patient.
Published : 31st March 2012
Author : Jocelyn Cornwel,l Ros Levenson, Lara Sonola and Emmi Poteliakhoff [ More From This Author ]
Publisher : The Kings Fund [ More From This Publisher ]
Rights : The Kings Fund
This resource is not currently associated to any Issues
This resource is not currently associated to any Campaigns
Have Your Say
Members are able discuss this resource in the BASW Member Forum. Please login to allow this feature.
Continuous Professional Development
Members are able to add an entry to their CPD record here. Please login to allow this feature.
