Hca Measuring Quality

“Measuring Quality”

Measuring patient outcomes are not always easy. The two approaches that should be used are physician-patient communication and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). Communication allows the patient to feel more in control, and has also been known to cause a therapeutic effect for the patient. Scientific evidence shows patients have better health outcomes when they have access to information about their health (E. Larson, 2009). Communication makes the patient feel as though the physician cares about them, and in some cases allows them to be more comfortable with what they are hearing.

Studies have shown that numerous mental health issues have been missed due to the fact that the physician doesn’t listen to the patient. There are also cases where the patients concerns go completely ignored. Over half of the patients seen in physician’s offices leave the office very unsatisfied.

In late 2004, a group of outcomes scientists from seven institutions and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) formed a cooperative network funded under the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research Initiative to re-engineer the clinical research enterprise. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) - aims to revolutionize the way patient-reported outcome tools are selected and employed in clinical research and practice evaluation (NIHPROMIS, 2009). It will also establish a national resource for accurate and efficient measurement of patient-reported symptoms and other health outcomes in clinical practice. As part of the NIH Roadmap, NIH funded six primary research sites and a statistical coordinating center as the PROMIS network. PROMIS aims to develop ways to measure patient-reported symptoms, such as pain and fatigue, and aspects of health-related quality of life across a wide variety of chronic diseases and conditions.

Quality health care can be defined as the extent to which patients get the care they...