Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Email: patrickoben gmail. The patient experience is now globally recognized as an independent dimension of health-care quality. However, although patients, providers, health-care managers, and policy-makers agree on its importance, there is no standardized definition of the patient experience. A clear understanding of the basic concepts that make up the foundation of the patient experience is more important than a statement defining the patient experience.
The fundamental nature of health care involves people taking care of other people in unique times of distress. Thus, the human experience is at the very core of understanding what the patient experience is.
This article reviews a framework of the basic human experience of patients as they progress from being unique, healthy individuals to a state of experiencing both disease and health-care services.
This novel framework naturally leads to a basic understanding of the patient experience as a human experience of health-care services. Throughout the world, the patient experience is recognized as an independent dimension of health-care quality, along with clinical effectiveness and patient safety 1 , 2.
Quality is a key driver of these industry-wide changes, as are the shifts in health-care policy that have tied hospital and physician compensation to patient experience measures, the focus on patient engagement, and the emergence of the consumer mindset 2 , 4. Therefore, patients, clinicians, policy makers, managers, and researchers have different interprets of the concept 5. Thus, a clearer understanding of the patient experience will assist clinicians in improving that experience at the point of care, guide further research into the topic, and provide clear directions for quality improvement efforts and health-care policies.
