Client: Ministry of Social Affairs
Period: 2019
The aim of the study was to develop and test questionnaires for health professionals and the general public to measure person-centred healthcare. Person-centred healthcare is a multifaceted concept with no single measurement instrument. Person-centred healthcare focuses on the individual as a whole, not on a single disease, diagnosis or healthcare system. It is important to involve the person and their relatives and to take into account the person’s decisions and preferences when providing health care services.
The population survey measured the following components of the person-centred healthcare: health education, patient-centred communication, coordination of treatment, access to healthcare and prescription drugs, involvement of loved ones and patient safety. Patient-centred communication was evaluated with a health professionals survey by Kjaer et al. (2015), to which patient safety questions were added. The sample size of population survey was 1,000 people, and that of the health professionals was 1,036, including nurses, midwives and doctors.
The results of this survey provide an opportunity to evaluate the selected components of person-centred healthcare. Further in-depth studies are needed to understand the issues better.