No

Thesis advisor: Judith A. Vessey / Purpose: The purpose of this study was to elucidate changes in parents' perceptions of health related quality of life (HRQOL), functional status, and caregiver burden in children with severe cerebral palsy (CP) following extensive orthopedic surgery and to determine the amount of nonmedical out-of-pocket expenses (NOOPEs) incurred during hospitalization. Background: CP is the most common cause of childhood physical disability. Children with severe non-ambulatory CP have multiple complex medical problems and frequently develop hip dislocations and neuromuscular scoliosis; these require extensive orthopaedic surgical interventions to prevent progression. The surgical trajectory is costly, resource intensive, and complications are common. Decision-making needs to extend beyond anticipated physical and radiographic improvements to include patient-centered outcomes including HRQOL, functional status, caregiver impact, and financial burden. Currently, research on this second group of outcomes does not exist. Methods: A single group prospective cohort study (N=48) design was used to measure changes pre- and post- surgery. NOOPEs were collected on a daily basis from parents during their child's hospitalization. A linear mixed-model regression analysis for longitudinal data, incorporating serial patient measurements over one year, was used to assess changes in HRQOL, functional status, and caregiver impact using measures normed for this population (i.e., CPCHILD, ACEND). NOOPEs were calculated using descriptive statistics. Results: Significant declines in HRQOL and functional status were noted at six weeks post-operative with return to baseline at three months. Long-term significant (p = .005) improvements, however, were noted beginning at six months. Caregiver impact did not change significantly over time. The total NOOPEs for the inpatient ranged from $59.00-$6977.50 (Median = $479.30) with 1971.5 missed hours from work. Conclusion: Children with severe CP who undergo extensive orthopaedic surgery and their families experience improvements across a variety of patient-centered outcomes in the long-term following surgery. Nursing has a critical role in assisting families in decision-making around surgery and providing anticipatory guidance and support. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

In a teaching clinic, healthcare students and their supervisors talk with their patients in the examination room and they talk about their patients during teaching consultations outside the examination room. Effective doctor-patient communication helps to establish management plans that are appropriate for both doctors and their patients. Amid a pressure to provide more patient-centered care, communicating effectively with older adult patients is particularly crucial because the occurrence of health problems and the likelihood of age-based communication barriers and negative attitudes increase with age. This project is a qualitative, collective case study of eye examinations, case presentations and participant interviews. This study took place in the Primary Care Clinic at the University of Waterloo, School of Optometry. Participants included 8 fourth-year optometry students, 5 supervising optometrists, and 10 patients between 60 and 85 years of age. The study involved audio-recording and analyzing eye examinations of older adult patients, case discussions about these patients, and interviews of older adult patients, optometry students and their optometrist supervisors. Data were analyzed using a constant-comparative approach, consistent with grounded theory. This study identified some of the discursive features of and reflections about patient-centered communication during the talk with and about older adult patients. During the eye examinations, optometry students incorporated five types of verbal communication that were consistent with a patient-centered model: Patient Agenda, Social Talk, Analogies, Patient Agency, and Health Promotion & Prevention. Although these successful attempts to incorporate patient-centered communication strategies were evident in the talk with patients, optometry students routinely engaged in seven other verbal strategies that challenged this patient-centered ethos: Closed-Ended Questions, Biomedical and Technical Language, Patient as a Problem, Unacknowledged Patient Voice, Patient Understanding, Doc Talk, and Caregiver Agency. Two types of discursive strategies related to patient-centered care were identified in the talk about older adult patients during novice case presentations: Voice of Optometry and Voice of Patient. The Voice of Optometry incorporated field-sanctioned language strategies including three subcategories: Biomedical, Technical and Judgment. In contrast, the Voice of Patient represented various levels of patient agency: Passive Recipient, Negotiated Agency and Patient Agency. According to their interviews, optometry students received limited explicit training, in both classroom and clinic instruction, on how to talk with and about patients. During their interviews, optometry students and their supervisors made clear distinctions between patient–centered and doctor-centered care. Most of the students and supervisors believed that the optometry profession and the optometry school promoted patient-centered care. Elements of patient voice were represented in the eye examinations, the case presentations and the post-examination patient interviews. During novice case presentations patient voice was often fragmented into sound bytes of the original patient statements or translated into field-sanctioned language. Although many instances of patient education and counselling were evident throughout the eye exams, limited discussion occurred in the novice case presentations between students and their instructors about what to say to patients, In addition, the majority of topics addressed during educational and counselling moments were not discussed during the novice case presentations. Additionally, post-examination patient recall regarding education and counselling was generally limited. Throughout this study, talk about age appeared in four ways: 1) caregivers used age to make clinical decisions during case presentations, 2) caregivers referenced age during counseling and education to explain eye and vision changes, 3) patients commented on the impact of age on themselves, and 4) caregivers spoke about how they considered age when speaking to their patients. While the caregivers generally valued a patient-centered approach, the talk with and about patients was skewed towards strategies that may limit the ability to support this ethos. It is questionable what audience (i.e. patient or supervisor) optometry students value and how this affects their ability to adopt patient-centered communication strategies. Findings from this study suggest that caregivers and their patients might benefit from some changes in the way patient-centered practice is taught and practiced in this optometry teaching clinic. As a greater understanding develops of the strategies of and challenges to patient-centered practices in optometry, it is my hope that optometry training programs as well as optometry professional organizations will further embrace patient-centered practices.

In a teaching clinic, healthcare students and their supervisors talk with their patients in the examination room and they talk about their patients during teaching consultations outside the examination room. Effective doctor-patient communication helps to establish management plans that are appropriate for both doctors and their patients. Amid a pressure to provide more patient-centered care, communicating effectively with older adult patients is particularly crucial because the occurrence of health problems and the likelihood of age-based communication barriers and negative attitudes increase with age. This project is a qualitative, collective case study of eye examinations, case presentations and participant interviews. This study took place in the Primary Care Clinic at the University of Waterloo, School of Optometry. Participants included 8 fourth-year optometry students, 5 supervising optometrists, and 10 patients between 60 and 85 years of age. The study involved audio-recording and analyzing eye examinations of older adult patients, case discussions about these patients, and interviews of older adult patients, optometry students and their optometrist supervisors. Data were analyzed using a constant-comparative approach, consistent with grounded theory. This study identified some of the discursive features of and reflections about patient-centered communication during the talk with and about older adult patients. During the eye examinations, optometry students incorporated five types of verbal communication that were consistent with a patient-centered model: Patient Agenda, Social Talk, Analogies, Patient Agency, and Health Promotion & Prevention. Although these successful attempts to incorporate patient-centered communication strategies were evident in the talk with patients, optometry students routinely engaged in seven other verbal strategies that challenged this patient-centered ethos: Closed-Ended Questions, Biomedical and Technical Language, Patient as a Problem, Unacknowledged Patient Voice, Patient Understanding, Doc Talk, and Caregiver Agency. Two types of discursive strategies related to patient-centered care were identified in the talk about older adult patients during novice case presentations: Voice of Optometry and Voice of Patient. The Voice of Optometry incorporated field-sanctioned language strategies including three subcategories: Biomedical, Technical and Judgment. In contrast, the Voice of Patient represented various levels of patient agency: Passive Recipient, Negotiated Agency and Patient Agency. According to their interviews, optometry students received limited explicit training, in both classroom and clinic instruction, on how to talk with and about patients. During their interviews, optometry students and their supervisors made clear distinctions between patient–centered and doctor-centered care. Most of the students and supervisors believed that the optometry profession and the optometry school promoted patient-centered care. Elements of patient voice were represented in the eye examinations, the case presentations and the post-examination patient interviews. During novice case presentations patient voice was often fragmented into sound bytes of the original patient statements or translated into field-sanctioned language. Although many instances of patient education and counselling were evident throughout the eye exams, limited discussion occurred in the novice case presentations between students and their instructors about what to say to patients, In addition, the majority of topics addressed during educational and counselling moments were not discussed during the novice case presentations. Additionally, post-examination patient recall regarding education and counselling was generally limited. Throughout this study, talk about age appeared in four ways: 1) caregivers used age to make clinical decisions during case presentations, 2) caregivers referenced age during counseling and education to explain eye and vision changes, 3) patients commented on the impact of age on themselves, and 4) caregivers spoke about how they considered age when speaking to their patients. While the caregivers generally valued a patient-centered approach, the talk with and about patients was skewed towards strategies that may limit the ability to support this ethos. It is questionable what audience (i.e. patient or supervisor) optometry students value and how this affects their ability to adopt patient-centered communication strategies. Findings from this study suggest that caregivers and their patients might benefit from some changes in the way patient-centered practice is taught and practiced in this optometry teaching clinic. As a greater understanding develops of the strategies of and challenges to patient-centered practices in optometry, it is my hope that optometry training programs as well as optometry professional organizations will further embrace patient-centered practices.

Person-centered care (PCC) has been recognized by the Institute of Medicine as a critical element in the redesign of our nations healthcare system. Evidence suggests that the physical environment contributes to a more person-centered inpatient healthcare experience. This study explored the relationships among demographic characteristics of individuals receiving care in skilled nursing facilities, satisfaction with nursing care, perceived ambiance of the healthcare environment, and the perception of PCC. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, Spearman’s rho, and hierarchical linear regression were used to analyze the data and answer the research questions. In addition, content analysis was used identify possible themes from the comments by the participants regarding the overall care experience. The sample consisted of 71 individuals (48 women) between the ages of 38 and 97 (M = 71.34, SD = 11.51) having received rehabilitation and/or nursing care in fourteen short-stay SNFs in Texas. A small positive significant relationship was found between the perception of personalized care and years of education (r = .27, p = .012). Moreover, a strong positive significant relationship was found between satisfaction with nursing care and PCC (r = .76, p <. 001), perceived ambiance and PCC (r = .57, p < .001), and satisfaction with nursing care and ambiance (r = .52, p < .001). Hierarchical linear regression only included years of education, satisfaction with nursing care, and ambiance since they were the only variables that had a significant relationship with the outcome variable. The analysis showed that satisfaction with nursing care was the strongest predictor of PCC accounting for 53% of the variance. In addition, ambiance was identified as a significant predictor of the perception of PCC after controlling for education and satisfaction with nursing care. Overall, the three variables accounted for 64% of the variance in the perception of PCC. This was the first study to explore the relationship between perceived ambiance of an inpatient healthcare setting and the perception of person centered care. These findings indicate that the physical environment is an important element that can influence the perception of personalized care in a short-stay SNF setting. / text

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model has been touted as one of the most promising reform efforts of the largely inefficient U.S. healthcare system. In comparison to the current primary care system, the PCMH is a care delivery model that is based on the principles of care-coordination, enhanced access, and team-based collaboration as a means of providing comprehensive, patient-centered medical care. The current literature contains a limited number of review articles synthesizing the data of numerous PCMH outcome studies. Even a smaller number draws definitive conclusions as to whether PCMH is a viable model upon which to reform the US healthcare system. This literature review will examine the available results of PCMH studies in light of their ability to 1) decrease the overall cost of healthcare 2) increase the efficiency of the continuity of care and 3) to increase positive patient outcomes through proactive patient care. Additionally, these results will be examined in regard to their longevity as a viable model of reform and specifically as it compares to the current US healthcare system. This review will determine whether there is statistical evidence that the Patient-Centered Medical Home is a successful model to decrease healthcare costs, increase healthcare efficiency as well as increasing positive patient outcomes. In addition, this review hopes to point to ways in which the model could be improved in order to more completely achieve the goals listed above.

The economic evaluation (EE) component of health technology assessments (HTA) often defines value in terms of health related quality of life, with many HTA agencies requiring the use of EQ-5D based Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs). These approaches do not capture value derived from patient experience factors and the process of care. This thesis widens the valuation space beyond this limited perspective, taking account of such factors, using monetary values generated from a discrete choice experiment (DCE), incorporating these into a discrete event simulation (DES) and conducting a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The case study is monitoring individuals with ocular hypertension. Five strategies were compared using a DES: 'Treat All' at ocular hypertension diagnosis with minimal followup; Biennial monitoring (either in primary or secondary care) with treatment according to predicted glaucoma risk; and monitoring and treatment according to the UK National glaucoma guidance (either conservative or intensive). DCE based Willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for relevant health outcomes (e.g. risk of developing or progressing glaucoma and treatment side effects), patient experience factors (e.g. communication and understanding with the health care professional) and process of care (e.g. monitoring setting) were obtained. Conditional logit, mixed logit preference space and mixed logit WTP-space (rarely used within health economics) econometric specifications were used. These WTP valuations were aggregated in the DES, as fixed mean values or allowing variation between simulated individuals. While the standard cost-utility analysis (CUA) using EQ-5D implied 'Treat All' was most likely cost-effective, CBA with broadened valuation space identified, consistently across different econometric specifications, 'Biennial hospital' as the best choice. This thesis proposes an approach to broaden the valuation space that can be promptly used for EE-HTA. Researchers should be attentive of the valuation space considered in their EE and choose wisely the EE approach to be used (e.g. CUA and/or CBA).

Accountable care units (ACU-?¢) provide a new model for integrated patient care. The ACU-?¢ promotes patient centeredness in nursing units as team members work collaboratively with physicians to improve patient outcomes and reduce unwarranted variations. A health system in the southeastern United States incorporated the ACU-?¢ as part of their care model. These units were held accountable for their clinical, service, and cost outcomes but lacked a validation process to demonstrate the effective utilization of their data. The purpose of this DNP project was to create a patient centered care (PCC) certification process, guided by the Donabedian model, that would provide hospital units the opportunity to access their process and quality improvement outcome data and to improve patient care. For this project, 12- key individuals were interviewed to gain their perspectives and input on the development and implementation of the PCC certification process. Results from the interviews were compiled and reviewed for common themes, which included Magnet-?¢ recognition, patient experience, current unit goals, and hospital strategic plan. Using the results of the interviews, a PCC certification procedure was created to outline the steps required to achieve certification; and, an application was developed to provide a standard format for quality and process improvement projects and associated outcomes reporting. The certification procedure will be implemented in the health system in the next fiscal year. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the program and future refinement will be controlled by the Nursing Shared Governance. The project may promote positive social change as the staff nurses on the individual units use the unit metrics to improve patient outcomes and reduce variations in care.

BACKGROUND: Pregnant and parenting women consistently show low rates of engagement and retention in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. While pregnancy enhances motivation and commitment to treatment, this population faces unique barriers to accessing care. Co-design is an approach that proactively engages service users to create a care system shaped to meet their needs. This study evaluated an adapted experience-based co-design (EBCD) process involving SUD treatment staff and parenting women with SUD (WWLE). METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with WWLE and SUD treatment staff were conducted to develop content for the co-design process and identify barriers and facilitators to treatment. These data were analyzed using the principles of Trauma Informed Care (TIC). Multiple data sources were utilized to evaluate the co-design implementation, including semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observation, and discussion transcripts of EBCD launch events. The Integrated Promoting Action on Research in Health Services (i-PARIHS) framework informed tool development and data analysis of the co-design implementation. RESULTS: The full sample across all stages of the EBCD implementation totaled 34 individuals (WWLE =13 and SUD staff = 21). Findings highlighted the importance of TIC in small pivotal moments that either enhance or diminish treatment engagement and retention. For the evaluation, WWLE reported having a valued voice in the co-design process and attributed their comfort level to small, equally represented workgroups, skilled facilitation and pre-existing, respectful relationships with staff. Professionals expressed commitment to the concept of co-design, but displayed mixed perspectives about the value of EBCD. Complex regulations, limited funding, and uncertainties during start-up presented challenges to the co-design process. Use of a remote platform created accessibility for participants, but presented challenges to communication and relationship building. CONCLUSION: This research demonstrates how the core components of EBCD foster meaningful engagement of WWLE and can effectively create a collaborative co-design process that manages inherent power disparities between WWLW and treatment staff. The TIC analysis provides insight into aspects of care that encourage or deter women from treatment. This research illuminates the importance of integrating a TIC approach throughout a co-design initiative. Co-design presents an opportunity to create women-centered care and health equity in SUD treatment. / 2024-11-08T00:00:00Z

No description available.