Grant: Project Grant

In Canada, efforts are increasingly being made to move healthcare research and policy towards a patient-centred care (PCC) model. PCC is defined as care that is respectful and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values, and ensures all clinical decisions are guided by patient, family caregiver values. Traditionally, the quality of healthcare has been driven predominantly by policy makers and evaluated through the lens of healthcare professionals, with limited attention to the perspectives of patients and family caregivers. Recent policy recognizes that patient views about their health and well-being not only complement healthcare provider perspectives, but also enhance the effectiveness and quality of care being provided. Inclusion of both patient and family caregiver views is essential to achieve high quality healthcare. Currently there are no Canada-wide mechanisms to measure and monitor PCC at the system level across the continuum of care. The development of patient-centred quality indicators (PC-QIs) represents a key step towards ensuring that healthcare systems remain responsive to the needs and preferences of patients. Our objective is to develop a set of PC-QIs that will be evidence-based and informed and prioritized by patients, ultimately driving care improvements that patients need and deserve. Patients and family caregivers will be involved throughout the study. The long-term goal is to implement these indicators to measure and monitor PCC across the healthcare system in all patient care settings. We plan to develop PC-QIs through 1) a scoping review, an environmental scan of indicators previously reported in various settings and countries and obtaining input on experiences with the healthcare system from patients and family representatives; 2) consensus of indicators from patients and family representatives, clinicians and decision makers; and 3) assessing the feasibility of implementation of PC-QIs.