Introduction
Patient-centered care has become an increasing priority in the United States and plays a prominent role in recent healthcare reforms. Since 1995, the Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Study (CAHPS) provided a comprehensive assessment of patient experiences in hospitals for comparison of the customers and internal improvement (Zimlichman et al., 2013). However, despite the promotion of measuring the experiences of all patients, the measurement of the experiences of older people is inadequate. Due to the increased vulnerability o the population and frequent cases of mental impairment, hospitals provide poor care to this population, and it is left unnoticed due to poor patient experience measurement practices (Goldberg & Harwood, 2013). As a result, the quality of care for the older patient does not improve at the desired speed.
My Experience
Since I have significant experience as a dialysis nurse, I often care for older people. They often complain that their interests are unprotected and the hospital does not provide the desired quality of care. However, their complaints often remain unnoticed, as the hospital authorities believe that it is common for older people to complain about everything. Thus, I experienced a similar situation as described by Goldberg and Harwood (2013), who stated that the current patient experience measurement discriminates against older patients.
Conclusion
Implementation of CHAPS and HCAPS had an overall positive impact on the promotion of quality of care in hospitals and clinics (Fowler et al., 2019). However, since neither CHAPS nor HCAPS focuses specifically on carrying for the elderly, the hospitals are not motivated to improve the matter.
References
Fowler, F. J., Cosenza, C., Cripps, L. A., EdgmanâLevitan, S., & Cleary, P. D. (2019). The effect of administration mode on CAHPS survey response rates and results: A comparison of mail and webâbased approaches. Health services research, 54(3), 714-721.
Goldberg, S. E., & Harwood, R. H. (2013). Experience of general hospital care in older patients with cognitive impairment: are we measuring the most vulnerable patientsâ experience? BMJ quality & safety, 22(12), 977-980.
Zimlichman, E., Rozenblum, R., & Millenson, M. L. (2013). The road to patient experience of care measurement: lessons from the United States. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 2(1), 1-6.