From Rhetoric to Reality: Achieving Patient-Centered Care
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In 1999, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) established the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation which seeks to advance medical professionalism and physician leadership in quality assessment and improvement. The 2008 ABIM Foundation's Invitational Summer Forum, "From Rhetoric to Reality: Achieving Patient-Centered Care" was designed to promote dialogue and decision-making among health care leaders to address barriers to, and innovations in, achieving patient-centered care.
Goals of the 2008 forum included:
- Developing a consensus on the meaning and definition of patient-centered care, including the role of patients and families;
- Identifying affordable and sustainable systems needed to support patient-centered care;
- Recommending how practices and training sites can embrace and adopt the principles of patient-centered care to improve care, particularly for the underserved and disadvantaged populations; and
- Identifying how organizations can advance patient-centered care.
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Bev Johnson, CEO and President of the Institute for Family-Centered Care, was among the health care leaders invited to participate. The Foundation also invited eight patient and family advisors to share both their real-life care experiences as patients and family members of patients as well as their insights about how to improve our health care system. Five of these patient and family advisors-Mollie Atkinson, Win Hodges, Greg Lipsky, Margaret Murphy, Karen Tate-have also presented at meetings convened by the Institute for Family-Centered Care. The presence and participation of patient and family advisors and leaders provided a compelling context for the issues discussed.
Margaret Murphy, now a patient advocate member of Patients for Patient Safety Steering Group of the WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety, gave the opening presentation, telling the story of her 21-year old son Kevin, who died needlessly as a result of multiple medical errors and missed opportunities. Read more about Margaret's story and view slides from her presentation.
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Don Berwick, MD, President & CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, delivered The Kimball Lecture, What "Patient- Centered" Should Mean: Confessions of an Extremist. Don listed the following as examples of Patient- and Family-Centered Care:
- No restrictions on visiting;
- Patients determine food and dress;
- Patients and family members participate in rounds;
- Patients and families participate in design of health care processes and services;
- Medical records belong to patients;
- Shared decision-making technologies;
- Schedules conform to ideal queuing theory; and
- Patients have self-care option.
Prior to the meeting, the Foundation created the opportunity for participants to share their personal experiences as patients and caregivers within the health care system. The compilation of these stories: Shared Wisdom-Patient and Caregiver Stories From The Participants of the 2008 IBIM Foundation Forum, makes the compelling case that "We are all, at times, both patients and caregivers and we all have vested interests in making the health care system more patient- and family-centered."
For more information on designing a Patient- and Family-Centered Health Care System, see Partnering with Patients and Families to Design a Patient- and Family-Centered Health Care System: Recommendations and Promising Practices